The Thriving Christian Artist

How to Trust God's Plan in Your Creative Journey

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

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Feeling called to create but unsure of the path ahead? We explore the tension every faith-filled artist knows: trusting God’s plan when the studio feels quiet and the roadmap isn’t obvious. From the first spark of calling to the slow, stretching seasons where nothing seems to move, we unpack why hiddenness isn’t failure—it’s formation—and how to keep showing up with peace, clarity, and courage.

Matt shares three anchors that reframe the journey. First, your creativity is not random; it’s assignment—Ephesians 2:10 names you God’s poema, designed to reveal His heart through your work. Second, hidden seasons still count; Scripture shows a pattern of preparation before platform, where God loosens our grip on applause and strengthens our ear for His voice. Third, faithfulness comes before fruitfulness; the Kingdom order shifts our metrics from speed and sales to obedience and steady craft, trusting God with timing and reach.

To put this into practice, we walk through the Core Four Focus Framework—a daily rhythm to anchor your creative life. Connect with God and recall His promises over your identity and work. Clarify the one essential priority for the day. Create by showing up in the studio—ten minutes or ten hours—letting inspiration follow action. Cultivate relationships with peers, collectors, and your audience so you live like a river, not a pond. We close with a prayer for grace, resilience, and trust in the pace God sets, and invite you to take next steps with resources that help renew your mind, heal your heart, and build sustainable rhythms for your art and your faith.

If this resonates, subscribe for weekly encouragement, share this with an artist who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what’s your “one thing” you’ll do today?

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SPEAKER_00:

Hey, have you ever felt like God gave you this creative gift to be an artist, but somehow He uh forgot to give you the roadmap? Listen, we've we've all been there. And it can be frustrating to be showing up in your studio every day, trusting God, praying, believing the best. But when you look around, you just don't see much happening. And you start to wonder like, did I miss it? Did I get it wrong? Is this not God's plan for my life? Listen, we have all been there. And today I want to help you learn how to trust God's plan for your creative journey, especially in those times in life where you can't yet see all that he's doing. Today on The Thriving Christian Artist, all over the world, artists are awakening, painters and potters, writers and weavers, poets and dancers, not chasing followers or fame, but sons and daughters called for such a time as this, transformed from the inside out, creating with purpose, releasing the glory of God, and living in the power of the kingdom right now. This is the Thriving Christian Artist. Well, hey, friend, I'm Matt Tommy. Super glad that you're here where every week I'm creating great content to help artists just like you who love Jesus thrive in everything that God's called them to do as an artist in the kingdom. And listen, today we're talking about this idea of learning to trust God's plan for our creative journey. And can I just say uh it is not for the faint of heart? I think all of us that love Jesus realize that there are always seasons in our life where, you know, sometimes we fully get what God's doing and we can see it, and man, we can feel the momentum and it's great. And there are other seasons, many times transitional seasons in our life, where we, no matter how much we're praying, no matter how much we're leaning into what we feel God's got for us, we just can't see his hand at work. And I don't know about you, but those are times that really can stretch me, uh, not only as an artist, but also as a believer. Uh, it can be a difficult time. It can be also a time that the enemy wants to come in and and take advantage of those doubts and fears and feelings that can can feel like they overwhelm us. You know, I I remember uh several years ago walking through a season of transition where I felt like God was, you know, asking me to let go of one thing in order to take hold of the next thing. And I don't know about you, I would just love for that to be a quick linear process, right? Yeah, just let go of this and step into that. But most of the time, God is is leading us through a process where he's not forgotten us, but he's actually forming us. He's using these situations of darkness and he's using these situations where we can't yet see fully all the things that he's doing uh in our lives as artists. We can't yet quite see the place that he's leading us to. He's using those things to form us deeply in our faith, to where we learn to walk with him. Because I've just learned this, my friend. You have to learn to walk with God in the unseen times before you can walk with God in the in the in the things that are seen. And that is absolutely antithetical to the way most of us like to live. You know, most of us want to say, God, show me and I'll step out. And God says, Well, actually, if you'll step out, then I'll begin to show you. And it's learning to walk with God in those times of formation and learning to trust him that he's teaching us to follow uh not only his plan for our life, but also the pace of that journey. And if you're like me, I want that pace to be fast. I want it to be, I want it to be quick, I want to be able to see all the twists and turns along the way. But part of learning uh how to walk through these seasons of trusting God's plan for our life in the unseen is realizing that these seasons where we can't see everything, the seasons where everything are not clear, these are the beautiful seasons where God is shaping us and forming us and preparing uh us for the next incredible thing that God's got for us in our life. So I want to give you three uh really foundational principles today that are gonna help you help anchor your heart in these times, especially when you're trying to trust God's plan for your journey, but you can't quite see it. And the first thing is this number one, God has called you as an artist on purpose. It's really, really important for you to realize that God did not give you this creative gift on accident. You just didn't come up with it on your own. It's not random, it's not optional. Listen, this is part of God's design for your life. And in fact, if you've heard me talk at all, you know, I love going back to Ephesians 2.10 that always says, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, what? Which God is prepared in in advance for us to do. In other words, this thing that we do as an artist, showing up in the studio and and creating, learning to imagine with Him and take those imaginings and mix it with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and uh release those through the work of our hands, this is not just something that we came up with. This is God's plan and purpose for our life. And so you got to realize that when you can't see things, when you're trying to figure out God's God's plan and purpose and things are not working out exactly the way you thought, it's easy. Come on, it's easy to doubt. Well, am I really an artist? Is God this really what God's called me to do? Um, you got to realize that that word workmanship that's there in Ephesians Ephesians 2.10, it's actually poema, which is God's poem, his artistic expression. In other words, we are designed to be the expression of God in the earth. You are, and I am, how revival is supposed to happen. You are, and I am the vessel through which God wants to release his kingdom and his nature and his transforming power. And that is so huge. And learning to create with God, not just for God, is actually how the kingdom of God works, that we see and agree with him, right? We see the things and we sense what God is saying in our imagination and in the spirit. We agree with it in our heart and then we release it through the work of our hands, through the words of our mouth, through the desires of our heart, the songs that we sing, the movies that we write, the books that we write, the art that we create. This is how creativity happens. And so this creativity is not separate from any calling that God has for you. No matter if you're called as an artist or in in other areas, the creative process is how the kingdom of God gets manifested in the earth. And in seasons where we're trying to really lean into and trust God's creative plan for our life when we can't see, it's really important to realize creativity is not separate from that. This is how God wants to do it. And so when the process is feeling slow or unclear or a little muddy, like I'm not sure quite what is going on, you have to remind yourself, I'm still called, even when I feel unseen. Listen, that is a really, really big challenge for artists because part of what God's given us as our gifting is to be seen, to create works that would be seen, to create demonstrations of his glory, to create art that becomes an intersection point, a means of grace. And when you're in a season where you feel like that's not happening, it can be a struggle. But you gotta, this is where we go deep, guys. This is where we lean into the Lord and we say, Lord, even though I don't feel like what I'm doing is being seen, even though I know that that uh you know you've got plans and purposes for me, but I don't see the full working of that, I know that you are working all things together for my good. I know that you are forming me in the foundations of my heart. And I trust that even though what I'm doing is not being seen on a wide scale right now, I know that I am your poema, your workmanship. Listen, you got to drive that home and remind yourself of who God has created you to be. All right. So key number two then in that is realizing that if you're in one of these hidden uh seasons, hidden seasons still count. Hidden seasons do not mean that you're not following God, that he's not you know working in your life. Hidden seasons are still just as much a part of your journey in the kingdom as seasons where you're walking and in in in seasons where everybody can see what you're doing and and you get the applause and you get the recognition and and you can really feel the momentum. Listen, hidden seasons are just as important. But I listen, I get it. I'm just like you. Nobody likes the seasons of waiting. Nobody likes, nobody likes the hidden seasons. We want to feel like what we're doing is effective and efficient and and like God's making an impact in it. But listen, I want to remind you that God, every every person in the Bible that God has used in a powerful way, they have gone through seasons of being hidden. You look at David, he was anointed way back when he was tending sheep, but it was years before he stepped into the calling to be, you know, the king that God had called him to. Jesus was 30 before his public ministry started, before the miracles started in his life, right? 30 years of faithfulness, 30 years of probably having to remind himself who he was and what he was called to do, 30 years of standing on the promises that my father sent me here for a reason and a purpose, even though I don't see it right now. Even Bezalel, right, who's the first artist that we see highlighted in scripture, he was filled with the Spirit of God before he ever did anything. Right? You got to realize that there's a there's a calling and a purpose and a plan for your life that's given to you by God before you ever do anything, before everybody anybody ever sees anything that you do. And so you got to realize these hidden seasons are not separate from God. These hidden seasons don't mean that you've done anything wrong. Hear that. Hear that really good. Shame wants to come in and say, if you're in a hidden season, you've done something wrong. If you're in a hidden season, you've made God mad. If you're in a hidden season, there's something wrong with you that God's got to fix. And no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen, hidden seasons are are these seasons that that God is forming. And yeah, he may be knocking off some of the rough edges, but he's also teaching you how to hear his voice, how to how to not be controlled and moved by the accolades of man, but how to listen to his voice, how to be clear on what he's saying for you to do in that in that season, how to be clear on who you are in him, not based on what other people say, and not based on the accolades of man and accolades of the art community. He's teaching you in these times. And so listen, if you're in that season right now, like we have always been, you've got to listen, trust me and trust God. These seasons are not wasted. God is shaping your character, he's shaping your dependence on him, and he's also shaping your obedience. He's he's teaching you in these times how to step out in seasons where it doesn't make sense to your natural mind. And all of that is a big part of you being formed. So don't allow the enemy to say that if you're in a hidden season, you're stuck, you're broken, you're finished, uh, you know, somehow, somehow something's wrong. No, you're in a season of preparation, you're in a season of formation. And listen, there are there are things I've just learned in my life, there are things that God can do. There's space in seasons of waiting where you can experience God in such a beautiful way that when things are rolling and fast and the momentum's going and the favors there, and you're walking, some sometimes those seasons get so busy and we lose the spaciousness of what can be beautiful in a hidden season. So don't ever feel like those are a waste. Those are absolutely on purpose, and they're a big part of learning to trust God's plan for your creative journey in your life. All right. Now, number three is this faithfulness always comes before fruitfulness. You know, what does the Bible say? Even in Genesis, be fruitful and what? Then multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. We listen, be honest. We all want the multiplication before we get the fruitfulness, right? We all want the fruit. We we all want the result, but but we we want the recognition and the sales and the momentum and the accolades and the awards and all that kind of stuff. But but God, again, this is part of how he's forming us in this creative journey and how we're learning to trust him. He wants us to be faithful. He's asking us for faithfulness. He's in other words, he's using these hidden seasons and these seasons that don't always make sense. He's using these to teach you and to draw you into faithfulness and to get your heart to be connected to faithfulness and trust him for the fruitfulness. I love it in Luke 16, 10 where it says this it says, For for whoever is faithful in little will be faithful in much. You know, you can look in uh in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. Jesus said, Uh, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with little. Now I'm gonna what? I'm gonna make you ruler over much. But you gotta realize you're never gonna get the much, you're never gonna get the multiplication unless you learn to trust God in these hidden seasons in faithfulness. And listen, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know you want it to go faster, I want it to go faster, I know you want to make a bigger impact, I want to make a bigger impact, but you gotta realize the speed and the pace of the journey and the impact on your journey. We realize as believers, we can't engineer that ourselves. That is God. It's the Bible says it's God that that brings promotion. Promotion doesn't come from the north, south, east, or west, but it's from the Lord. The Lord is the one who establishes, the Lord is the one that brings fruitfulness through our lives as we are faithful. And so, what's our job in that? Our job is to keep showing up, to keep making in the studio, to be faithful to the things that that God's showing us, to make adjustments where we're needed, to keep trusting. And listen, I had to learn a long time ago, and maybe this is gonna be a revelation for you today. God's plan for my life was not about launching me out into you know all this impact. God's plan for my life was to form me into the image of Christ and anchor me into him first. And listen, if we can do that, if we can allow our heart to be healed and allow our mind to be renewed to the truth and allow our very identity to be anchored in him first, listen, there's no there's no limits to what God will do with you, but don't ever get the cart before the horse. If you start getting the cart before the horse thinking, oh God, I want to make an impact. I want to do all these things for you, he says, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get to all that. And I got plans and purposes for you with that, but it starts in the place of anchoring. It starts in the place of faithfulness. And I don't, I don't know about you, but maybe that's part of why you're feeling frustration right now. I know that's been a big part of my journey, is when I'm feeling this resistance and this frustration and learning to trust God in my creative journey. Most of the time it's because things are not happening fast enough or in the way that I think they ought to happen. And it's a perfect time to roll it back, to take a deep breath, and to get into the just a healthy rhythm of life of anchoring myself in the Lord. Now, listen, I want to really drive that home to you because learning to anchor yourself in the Lord is not just a one-time decision. Learn to trust God in your creative journey is not just a one-time decision. It is a daily rhythm. And I developed something years ago that we use in our Creative to Thrive Artist Mentoring program called the Core Four Focus Framework. And it is this simple rhythm. I want to give it to you right now. That's that's a simple rhythm that you can do every day. That I think is one of the best rhythms that you can do to anchor yourself in the Lord and to keep yourself focused as you're learning to trust God's plan for your life. All right. So I walk that through with you today. The first part of this is connect. Every day we start our day with connecting with the Lord. Just you and Him, right? No pressure the day. No, I got to get into it. No, no performing. We're just focused on his presence. And while you're connecting with him, part of that is worship, part of that is reading his word. But a big part of that I found in my own journey is reminding myself of what God has already said about me, to me, in his word, uh, prophetic promises that he's given me, um, you know, vision that he's put on my heart, things that I know like are for me in this season. I have to remind myself of that. And you know why we remind ourselves of that? Because it's through the promises of God that we participate in the abundant life that God's called us to. Second Peter 1, 3 and 4 says this it's through the very great and precious promises of God that we participate in the divine nature. All right, it's through those promises. And so part of connecting with God every day and learning to live in a place of trust in your creative journey is reminding yourself who you are in Christ, what God's called you to, what he's promised you, how he's designed you, the things that he's called you to. Listen, and if you got to do that with a vision board, you want to do that with affirmation cards, you want to write it in your journal, you know, whatever you want to do, reminding yourself of who you are in Christ and connecting with the Father every day. That is a huge, primary, foundational part of anchoring yourself in Christ. All right. Secondly, then, out of that place of connection, the thing that you want to do, and I that I'd recommend that you do in developing this daily rhythm of learning to trust him, is to clarify. Clarify what's important today. In other words, God, I've reminded myself of who you are. I've taken time with you. Now, Lord, in alignment with who I am and the season I've been and what you've called me to do, what is it for today? What's the one thing that's on my list today that you want to, that I want to make sure I get done? What's the what's the main priority? One clear focus. Now you may say, well, I got 10 things I need to do. Listen, ask the Lord for the one thing. If you get his one thing done, I promise you all the other stuff will come a whole lot faster. All right. Number three, then, is create. For an artist, we have to show up in the studio every day, right? Artists create. And I don't care if it's 10 minutes or 10 hours. Don't wait to be inspired, right? Realize that inspiration comes as we show up faithful in the studio, right? The flow of the Holy Spirit shows up as you show up. And so create from a place of obedience, not out of pressure, but out of a place that just says, you know what? I'm an artist, and artists create, and I'm gonna be faithful to the thing that God has called me to do. That's part of creating this daily rhythm of trusting God in the journey. That even though I can't see it, even though I can't feel it, even though I don't see all the accolades and all the impact right now, I'm gonna show up faithful. I'm gonna do the thing that God's called me to do. And then the last thing is cultivate. And I think, again, no matter whether you're in a hidden season, a transitional season, a season of impact and influence, whatever, God calls us to cultivate relationships with people that are that are in our life. That may be other audience, uh other artists, that may be the audience that God's given you on social media or on your website. There may be fellow artists or collectors, yeah, whoever that is, you need to be creating and every day and connecting with them in a way that's meaningful, sharing your work, sharing your journey, sharing things that God's showing you along the way. That that allows you, I don't know, for me, it allows me to be a river, not a pond, right? Instead of just receiving, receiving, receiving and never giving it out, cultivating relationships allows me to release the things that God's showing me on a regular basis, both in my creative journey and in my spiritual life. And that is just really, really important. Listen, my friend, I hope this encourages you today that as you'll begin to do these things of learning to cultivate this daily habits in your creative journey, you can absolutely trust God in your creative journey. You can trust his plan even when you can't see it. So listen, wherever you are right now, I want to invite you, just would you close your eyes for a second and just let me pray this prayer over you? Father, I thank you right now that even in seasons where we can't see, Lord, you are working all things together for our good. And God, God, I pray right now for my friend that's this listening and watching, Lord, I pray for great grace to rise up within them, great confidence, not in themselves, not in what they can do, but God in your purposes and plans for them. Holy Spirit, remind us of who we are in you. Form us into the image of Christ. Bring faith in our heart that we would trust the pace of our journey and the goodness of our Father to work all things together and to put us in the place that he has for us, that we could accomplish every good thing that he's already planned for us before we were ever formed. We thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Listen, friend, thank you for being with me. I hope you'll make sure that you're subscribed so that you never miss any of the content that I'm bringing to you every week. Also, if if you want to grow in your creative journey as an artist, somebody that loves Jesus, but you want to learn how to create these habits, you want to learn how to renew your mind, you want to allow the Holy Spirit to heal your heart from some of the things that have you know have held you back for a lot of years and learn how to really start thriving as the artist that God's called you to be. I want to encourage you, uh, check out all the resources that are here in uh the show notes, our foundations course, which God's using to transform the lives of artists all over the world. It's a nine-week course with daily scripture, art prompts, community, incredible teaching that goes really, really deep in helping you to grow in everything that God's called you to do. Uh, whether it's our core four planner, uh, you know, you may want to grab one of those and start actually implementing on a daily basis uh this core four framework that I'm teaching, uh, or even being a part of our weekly newsletter where I'm sending out great content right into your email box to help you grow as an artist. We've got lots and lots of different ways for you to grow in your calling as an artist in God's kingdom. And it'd be my great honor to be able to be a part of your journey. I love you, my friend. Thanks for being here. Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know that this was meaningful to you. Let me know if you got any questions. I'm always happy to answer them. I read everyone personally, and uh be my honor to answer that for you. And remember, until next time, you were created to thrive. Bye. Hey, my friend, before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration, and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free, and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week, and again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged in everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you. Bye.