The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
203 – 5-Minute Mentoring: Overcoming the Fear Of What Others Think
In this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, and in this week's Blog, I’ll hit this problem head-on. I’ll also give you some real practical steps you can begin to take to move through this and find freedom from these debilitating fears.
In this episode, I mentioned two great resources that may help you as you begin to renew your mind. The first is my book, Created to Thrive, and it's available in Print, Digital, and Audio versions directly from Amazon, right here: https://www.amazon.com/Created-Thrive-Artists-Living-Abundance/dp/1536904279
Get encouraged and connect with other artists on the Thriving Christian Artist Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/thethrivingchristianartist/
Please Note: The mini-course mentioned in this episode is no longer available for purchase. You can find all of our current resources at: https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/resources.html
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One of the questions I get from artists just about every day on social media, on email, whatever. It's, man, I love Jesus. I know he's called me to do this creatively, but I am so scared. I'm so nervous about what other people will think of me, what they'll say about me, how they'll judge me, how I'm going to be found not enough. How do I get over this? Well, it's a big, big, big problem. In fact, it's really the foundation of every problem that artists go through. And today we're going to hit it head on, give you some really practical solutions of how to move through that here today on 5-Minute Mentoring. Have you ever wanted to have someone in your life who you could ask real questions about your art, your business, and even your walk with the Lord? Well, that's exactly what we do every Friday here on 5-Minute Mentoring, where I answer one question from one of my awesome podcast listeners in order to help you start really thriving as the artist you know God created you to be. Music Well, hey there, my friend. I'm so glad that you're here with me today on 5-Minute Mentoring. We're going to be talking today, again, about this whole idea of busting through the prison of what other people think about you, what other people say about you, what you think other people are going to see and say and think about you, because it's a big, big, big paralyzing factor for many, many artists. One of those artists who actually is the kind of the purpose of this mentoring segment today is Cindy Marie, who's one of our podcast listeners. Here's her question about trying to overcome this real authentic struggle in her life.
SPEAKER_00:This is Cindy Brindley. I am from Bradenton, Florida. I am a vocalist, which is an artist. I'm really nervous to even put out my own material. I'm afraid to put up a post with me singing. And it's always because of being afraid of what somebody else is going to think. So I need to know how to stop this and what to do next and how to begin.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, Cindy Marie, thanks so much for your question. Listen, again, I always really appreciate when people are vulnerable enough and transparent enough to ask me a question here on the podcast. You know what it says to me? It says to me that you are teachable and willing to learn and pressing into all that the Lord has for you. And I just kudos to you and a big high five, big hug from Matt. And I just really want to encourage you in that because I know this is a real struggle that all of us have struggled with at one time or the other. You know, if there's anyone One thing that I've struggled with in my whole life has been this. It's been this whole idea of, to take it up a level, I think what I would categorize as identity. In fact, my first book, Unlocking the Heart of the Artist, was really all about my struggle with identity and really coming to understand that you can be saved, and I was saved in my life. I knew that the saving power of Jesus, my spirit, had been renewed the moment that I asked Jesus to come into my heart, but nobody had ever told me that just because my spirit was instantly renewed, that my soul, that is my heart, mind, will, emotions, was needed to be renewed and come into the fullness of knowing the mind of Christ and being able to walk in the fullness that that salvation experience had provided for me in the spirit. See, that is so interesting, I think, for me as I help artists Most Christian artists and most Christians in general, much less artists, do not have this understanding that you were saved instantly, but you can be operating out of a wounded person. old mentality, an old paradigm. You can be saved on one side and see all the promises of God that are in God's word. And yet, if you have an unrenewed mind, that is, if you're still operating out of this old, wounded flesh paradigm, you will live a life in many respects more frustrating than the one you left before you were saved. Why? Because you've got this dream and this vision and this hope of eternal life, which has been brought to you through the cross and through Jesus, and yet you have no way that you know of to see that actually show up in your life on a daily basis, moment by moment, when it comes to your emotions, your thoughts, your actions, your feelings, all that sort of thing. And that leaves people intensely frustrated. Well, I was like that for most of my life until I I begin to see how transformation is designed to happen in the kingdom. Well, how does that happen? Well, Romans 12, 2, don't conform to the pattern of this world, but what? Be transformed, that is be fundamentally changed by what? By the renewing of your mind. So salvation happens instantly when you ask Jesus into your heart. Your spirit man is instantly transformed and changed, righteous, all right, instantly. But our mind, that is our mind, will, and emotions, all right, because we're a three-part being, right? We're spirit, soul, and body. Our soul, that mind, will, and emotions transform. part of us has to be renewed daily, moment by moment, as led by the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God. If you don't do that, intentionally, on a daily basis, renewing your mind to who is it that God says I am? What is it that God says I am? What is the truth about what God says about me versus all this fear, anxiety, frustration, confusion that I've carried all my life because my identity was based on what I did, my identity was based on what others said about me, all these sort of things. Oh my gosh, all of a sudden, when you start to renew your mind, you start to realize, hey, there's a real big difference between what I used to think about myself and maybe what you still do and what the truth of God's word says. And the passion of my life, honest to goodness, in all of my books, the foundation of what we do in the mentoring program, although it goes to other things, your art, your business and all that other sort of stuff, the foundation of everything we do is is really trying to help people get their heart healed and their mind renewed to the truth of what God says about them, what they can have in their life, what they can do in the kingdom because it is that, it is the renewing of your mind that is what brings transformation as a reality for you to walk in, but it's a choice. It's a daily choice, all right? And as you do what the Bible talks about of taking every thought captive under the Lordship of Jesus, all right, and you compare it to what you have believed versus what the Word of God says, and you make that exchange, you say, hey, I don't want to believe this old anymore. I receive the truth of God's word. And you do that over and over and over again as an act of your will. Guess what? All of a sudden, your spirit man begins to take the lead. And here's the deal. Your soul is kind of caught in the middle, right? Your soul can either take the lead from the flesh, which is what most of us are used to do in our whole life, what we feel, what others say, what we experience, all this sort of thing. Or it can take Well, just because you get saved doesn't mean that your soul is convinced that it needs to be taken the lead from the spirit. And so you have to convince your soul. It's like David said, What? He's declaring, hey, soul, you got to line up. You're used to operating over here by your feelings. You're used to operating over here by what everybody else says, but we're changing the paradigm. We're changing the way this is going to happen. And now I'm commanding you by the Spirit of God that lives inside of me. I'm commanding you, put your hope in God. That is, change your attention. Change who you're listening to. Change who you're responding to. And as you do that, as you renew your mind daily with the Word of God, All of a sudden, that builds confidence inside your heart. Your spirit man, all right, begins to inform in a greater way how you're supposed to be living, how you're supposed to be responding. And guess what? Your body, that is your flesh nature, all right, your body will respond to whatever your soul tells it. Your mind, will, and emotions tell it. And so the ideal is that we're receiving information by the Spirit, from the Spirit, our heart, mind, our will, and emotions are receiving that as truth, being fully persuaded and fully convinced that that is the way that we're supposed to be. And then our body, our actions, all right, our physical body actually line up with that and do the thing that our mind, will, and emotions is telling it to do. So you renew your mind, all right, which changes your thoughts and Your thoughts, when you think them over and over and over, those become beliefs. Your beliefs, when you believe them over and over and over, result in actions. Your actions, when you do them over and over and over, become habits. And your habits that you have form the fruit of your life. So if you want to change your life, you've got to change your thoughts. So Cindy Marie. To get to your question specifically, how do I get to the place where I'm not just devastated by what people think about me or ruled by this fear? I would simply say you're used to taking cues from what everybody else thinks and this kind of fear-based, flesh-based, old nature-based way of living your life as opposed to intentionally renewing your mind. So number one, I would say you're in the same situation everybody else is. Don't feel any shame. But number two, you're the only one that can make this change in your life. Holy Spirit will be there to walk with you, to empower, to guide, to lead, to comfort you all along the way. But you're the one that has to make a decision by the force of your will. to choose to align yourself with the truth of God's word. As you do that over and over, you will build up your inner man. You will build up inner strength and allow the Holy Spirit to be the one that informs so that you can build confidence and walk as the person that God has called you. Listen, that's been my story. That's the story of thousands of artists that I've been able to help over the years through the mentoring program, through all the things that we do. This absolutely is the secret weapon to how transformation is supposed to happen in the kingdom. And very, very few people practice it intentionally. I'm telling you, Cindy Marie, if you start doing this in your life, in short order, you will begin to see transformation. And listen, guys, that's true for anybody, any of you that are listening right now on the podcast. That is how transformation happens. Think of that. If you say to me, well, Matt, I just don't like the life. I'm just leading a life of fear and I'm just not experiencing everything that God's got for me. And I just know there's more, but I'm just waiting on God. No, listen, God's waiting on you. God's waiting on me. Yeah, God's waiting on you to make a decision out of your will to choose to choose his word over your experience, to choose to lean in to the voice of the Spirit to inform your identity and to ground you in his truth, as opposed to being grounded and founded and led by God. the truth that you have known up until this point, which is just anything that you can feel and sense and know in the flesh. Listen, God's got so much more for you. I just feel led to pray right now because I believe that God's going to begin to break some things open for you right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, I thank you that you are the one that set into motion this beautiful law, Lord, of renewing our mind. It's a vehicle, God, that you've given us to be able to experience the fullness of who you are and what you have for us so that we can receive, not from the flesh nature, but we can receive from the Spirit through our design and express your kingdom in and through our life so that we'll be changed, we'll live the abundant life, and we'll be ambassadors, your sons and daughters, God, the one releasing transformation in the earth. And so, Father, I thank you right now that there's grace to shift grace, to choose power, to do the thing that we know we ought to, the thing that we know that right now that you're leading us to. And we thank you for the grace to do it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Listen, I love it. When you get this, Cindy Marie, I want you to call me back on the podcast and I want you to say, Matt, I did it. Oh my gosh, it's changing my life. I want you to leave a review on the podcast, email me, do something, tell me, because I promise you this will make a huge, huge difference in your life. All right. Also, you know, I talk about this in just about every book that I've written. Specifically, you can go to Created to Thrive, that book on Amazon, the audio version, the Kindle, the print, grab that. I talk a lot about it in there I've also got a great mini course on this on our website called renewing your mind and you can grab that it's just 39 bucks it's kind of a no-brainer walks you through several in-depth teachings about this plus gives you some access to some great biblical affirmations that will help build your faith as you make this transformation in your life you can grab all those links right down here in the show notes all right well my friend I love you very much Cindy Marie thanks for your question thank you everybody for listening today until next time remember you work created to thrive. Bye bye.