The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist Podcast helps Christian artists grow in faith, creativity, and income as Spirit-led creatives in God’s Kingdom.
Hosted by internationally recognized Christian artist, mentor, entrepreneur and author Matt Tommey, this show equips you to overcome fear, renew your mind, and build a thriving art business rooted in your creative calling.
Each week, you’ll get real-life stories, practical teaching, and encouraging insight on topics like prophetic art, faith and creativity, marketing your art, hearing God’s voice, renewing your mind and selling your work with confidence.
Whether you’re a hobbyist, emerging professional, or established creative, you’ll be empowered to align with God’s purpose, create from wholeness, and prosper with Kingdom impact.
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The Thriving Christian Artist
3 Ways to Overcome Creative Block (with Christ)
Feeling stuck at the canvas, camera, or keyboard doesn’t mean your gift is gone. It often means you’ve been drinking from a cracked cistern—striving without connection, waiting on feelings to lead, or letting your imagination run dry. In this heartfelt, practical conversation, we walk through three proven keys that help artists break through creative block and keep it from returning: reconnecting with Jesus as the living source of creativity, creating by faith instead of mood, and actively cultivating inspiration you can steward over time.
We start by resetting the core belief: the God of creativity isn’t distant; His Spirit lives within you. You’ll learn a simple reset prayer to trade panic for peace, ways to refresh your studio atmosphere with worship and Scripture, and how renewing your mind turns off the inner critic and the enemy’s accusations. Then we move to practice. When you don’t feel it, you can still show up: low‑stakes play, sketchbook sessions, color mixing, and musical noodling prime the pump and invite momentum. You’ll see why the river of creativity flows from the Father, not your feelings, and how consistent action opens space for the Holy Spirit to guide.
Finally, we dig into cultivating inspiration. From museum walks and great books to nature hikes and studio visits, the inputs you choose refill the well. Keep a journal or sketchbook to collect ideas, phrases, shapes, and prayers—your personal treasury for thin days. As you reconnect, act in faith, and steward what stirs your heart, shame lifts, curiosity returns, and your practice becomes a joyful collaboration with God. If you’re ready to move from stuck to flowing, this episode offers language, tools, and hope to light the way.
If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a creative friend, and leave a review so more artists can find it. Then tell us: what one practice will you try this week?
Check out my podcast on 5 Simple Ways to Create Your Art with God on this platform or Youtube.
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Creative block is actually a lot more common than you think, but worse than common, it's actually paralyzing because it has a huge effect on your joy, your connection, your creative spirit, and even your relationship with the Lord. So here's the deal. Over the last 16 years, I've studied the lives of thousands of artists, the ones who really thrive in everything that God has for them as artists, and the ones who stay stuck continually in things like creative roadblocks. And what I've discovered is that artists who thrive actually share three common similarities that not only help them break through creative block, but also prevent it from ever happening again. So in today's video, I'm going to show you exactly what those three keys are, how they can work in your life, and how you can start using them immediately to jump back into the creative flow that you know God has for you as an artist. Okay, so before we talk solutions, I think it's super important for you to realize that the God of all creativity is not out there. So instead of thinking that God is out there somewhere and all of his immense creativity and abundance and joy and connection and fruitfulness and ideas and inspiration, all that that is within the nature of God, instead of thinking that that's out there somewhere, you got to start realizing that as a believer in Jesus, all of that 100% is resident inside of you right now as a believer. And I don't know about you, but that changes everything. I love it in James 1.5 when it says, hey, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God who will give it to you generously, right? This is this is God's heart. His heart isn't to withhold. He's waiting on us to ask him so that he can release every good thing that he's planned for you and for your creative process before you were even born. So if God's so willing to allow his creative spirit to flow through us, why is it that we as sons and daughters are even experiencing creative block in the first place? Well, creative block is usually the fruit of one or two or three, all of them, all three things that I want to share with you. The first thing is what I call a disconnected spirit. It's trying to create from a place of disconnection with the Lord. You're you're not connected into the vine, as it talks about in in John 15. Remember, he said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Apart from me, you can you can do nothing. Anytime that we try to perform or strive instead of working out of that place of rest and abiding, eventually the well is going to run dry, right? Eventually we come to the end of our own strength. And so many times, creative block is actually the you know realization and the demonstration that that's what's happening. We've come to the end of ourselves, we've come to the end of our resources, and we're just empty on the inside, and we come to the studio and we got nothing left to give. Now, number two is what I would call an empty imagination. God has given you an imagination in order to be able to form things within you. This is how the kingdom of God works, right? God drops ideas, but God also uses the impulses and the experiences and the opportunities that we walk in every day. When you're listening to beautiful music or reading a great book, watching a movie, God is using those things that we put into our imagination through our eye gate and through our ear gate and through the experiences of life. He uses those to flow over in our life to allow creativity to bubble up from within us. Well, here's the deal. If you're not actively stewarding well and looking for, cultivating inspiration in your life as an artist, then guess what? Holy Spirit's got nothing to flow over. Now, the third reason is really common as well, especially with Christians, it's this sort of passivity, right? This sort of passivity that says, well, if it's supposed to happen, it'll just happen. And well, when I feel creative, I'll go in the studio. But we're not designed to walk by feelings. We're designed to walk by faith, not only in our life, but also in our art. And it's really, really, really important that as you're growing in the Lord as an artist, you learn what it looks like to walk by faith in your creative practice. See, all three of those, when they show up in our life, a disconnected spirit, an empty imagination, or this sort of passive creative life, all of those are like what the Bible talks about as a broken cistern. Remember that verse? I love it. I'm gonna pull it up in Jeremiah 2.13. It says this they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water. I love that. God's calling himself the fountain of living water, right? He says, They've abandoned, abandoned me, the fountain of living water. They have dug cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all. Listen, just waiting on everything to show up, just you know, not filling your imagination, not connecting with the Lord, just relying on your own striving and and your own strength, kind of working off the fumes of yesterday and just kind of taking your artistic gift for granted, all of that is creating and trying to draw from a cistern that is cracked and is broken. And guess what? Over time, it's exhausting and the thing leaks and it dries up and it leaves you with what? What people call creative block. See, coming into the studio and feeling empty and disconnected, and like I said at the beginning, even that kind of little sense of shame, they're like, I should be able to do this. That is not proof that you've lost your gift. That is not proof that God's not for you, that you've done something wrong, that he's left the building, that you're not supposed to be an artist anymore. No, none of that is true. It's simply proof that you're just trying to drink from the wrong source. And so today I want to give you these three keys because when you start drinking from the right source and you stay plugged into the life of the Holy Spirit, you can learn how to not only bust through creative block, but also prevent it from being a regular occurrence in your life as an artist. Okay, so the first key that you really need to employ in your life when you're feeling creatively blocked is to reconnect with Jesus. Remember, everything in the kingdom starts with him. And if you're feeling creatively blocked, even right now, like you are looking for a video to help you with the creative block right now, you know what I'd say, do just stop. Stop. Don't try to push it, don't try to force it, don't try to panic and like, what am I gonna do? I got, you know, don't get into all that. All right, because the enemy loves to take advantage of those times where you feel all panicky. Just stop for a moment and close your eyes and just say, Holy Spirit, thank you that you're here with me right now, that you're not only with me, you're in me right now. And Lord, and I would just invite him, say, Lord, I give you this panicky feeling right now. I give you this feeling of need that I need to push it, that I need to make it happen that somehow I don't have enough. Father, I thank you that in Jesus' name in Christ, I have everything that I need for life and godliness. Holy Spirit, thank you that you're in me and through me, that you're the source of all creativity. And God, I choose to put my focus on you rather than my own feelings of inadequacy. Listen, when you do that, that is that is so powerful. It's a really a key to learning to renew your mind because learning to renew your mind is all about taking every thought captive and learning to say, hmm, is this thing that I'm feeling or thinking or the perspective that I'm looking at in this moment, does this sound like Jesus? Does this sound like God's word, or does it sound like I've got all the focus on me and my own inadequacy? Or does it sound like an accusation from the enemy? If you can get used to, and this is something you got to do, it's a kind of a working of a muscle, right? If you can get used to saying, you know what, in these moments of feeling creatively blocked, I'm just gonna stop. I'm gonna not play into the lie of the enemy, and I'm just gonna say, Holy Spirit, I am refocusing my mind and my thought and my eyes to you. Would you show me what's needed right now? Would you give me peace right now? Would you remind me that you're here right now? Would you remind me of scripture? You know, you know, one of the things I do just about every day that I walk in to the studio is I've on my phone, I've got my studio, I've got speakers uh in all the different rooms of our my studio here, and I just turn on my worship music. And man, what am I doing? There's nothing magic in that, but what am I doing? I'm intentionally reconnecting with Jesus. I'm intentionally setting an atmosphere that says, Holy Spirit, you were here before I got here. You're gonna be here after I leave, and you're in me as I walk in. I'm not doing this by myself, I'm doing this in connection with you. And when you do that, it just erases your awareness of the Holy Spirit that's already living within you. It breaks the panic, it breaks the pressure, and it breaks you out of that sort of swirl of, I don't know what to do, I'm so blocked, I don't have enough. It breaks you out of that. Now, that's what to do in the moment, as a daily part of your, you know, sort of creative practice, if you will, of what you're doing every day. I would absolutely say worship, reading God's word, journaling, having moments of silence, inviting him like physically out of your mouth. Holy Spirit, I invite you, like invite him into the studio. Thank him that he's already there. These things that you do train your spirit man, they train your heart and mind to resist the temptation and the accusation of the enemy, which is where you know creative block sort of uh festers. It trains you to resist that and lean into the connection of the living water of Jesus so that he can flow through you in all the things that you're doing creatively. And when you learn to do that, all of a sudden you begin to experience the flow of the Holy Spirit in your creative process on a regular basis. So just remember blocked creativity is almost always disconnected creativity. And once you make that reconnection, that's when the creativity starts to flow again. Now, the second key that I would say is really important in moving through and defeating creative block in your life is learn to create by faith, not by feelings. You know, as artists, we're taught and even modeled that, well, if it feels good, do it. If it doesn't feel like it, you know, don't do it. We just kind of go with the flow. And I'm just telling you, uh, that can get you a certain, you know, a certain way down the road in your life, but that is not uh a principle and a strategy for healthy living and thriving and everything that God's called to you, called you to. Everything that we do in the kingdom is by faith. God rarely gives us the full plan that we're supposed to be walking in life. We're always walking either by a promise or either by a plan. Now, listen, I love the plan. I love it when I walk in the studio and I can feel it. I know what I'm doing. Man, I got a I got a plan, I got a new commission, and I'm excited about it, or I got a show and I'm I'm working toward it. I know everything I'm gonna be doing, I'm inspired. Like that's a that's a wonderful feeling. That's that plan, right? That that God's put on your heart and you know exactly what you're doing. But listen, sometimes there are seasons where all you got is a promise. Just like Abraham, right? Abraham woke up one day and God says, I want you to pack it all up and I want you to go to the land that I'm gonna show you. And I'm sure Abraham was like, Well, if you'll show me, I'll go. And the Lord's like, uh, start going and I'll show you. And listen, many times our creative process is like that as well. We have to be, you have to be willing to walk by faith into the studio, even when you don't feel it, even when you don't feel inspired, even when there's not a project that's just right on the on the tip of your tongue, right at the edge of your hands. Like even when you're just not feeling it, you got to go in there by faith. Why? Because artists create. Artists show up in the studio. When we do the thing that God's called us to do, when we make room for that, we give the Holy Spirit opportunity to come into that place and lead us and guide us. And so right now, if you're feeling creatively blocked in this moment, I would just say take all the pressure off of having to create a masterpiece, right? Just go in. I don't know what it is, what medium you work in, you know, everybody can sketch, everybody can grab your sketchbook. I've always got mine, you know, right here by me. Pull out a sketchbook, pull out some pastels, a pen, a pencil, I don't care, whatever it is, and just start making some marks. Maybe get some watercolor, maybe get some, you know, whatever it is that you do. If you're a musician, maybe just start to toodle around by ear on whatever instrument that you're in, but just start to kind of get the get the the the well pumping, prime the prime the pump, if you will, right? Start start priming that pump and just start, you know, mixing colors, making marks, journaling a little bit on there. All you're trying to do is just wake up. Just wake up the creative gift that's inside of you. And you know what I find? More times than not, if I will allow myself the space to play in a place where I can't see clearly what God wants to do in my creative process that day, inevitably, what will happen? The well of creativity, the springing forth of the Spirit of God, the source of all creativity, will begin to flow. What? As I am in the studio doing the thing that he created me to do. And listen, the more you do that, the more you gain faith around this possibility that, hey, you know, even if I'm not feeling it today, I just show up in the studio, right? Because why? Because I'm an artist and artists show up in the studio, and just because I'm not feeling it, and just because I'm not seeing it, I'm gonna do it anyway. And I trust that when I do, even when it doesn't make sense in the natural, God's gonna show up. I'm gonna be transformed, art's gonna get created, and it's gonna be a great day. Just always remember the river of creativity flows from the father, not from your feelings. I'm gonna say that again. The river of creativity flows from the father, not from your feelings. The third key is this all of us as artists have to be cooperating with the Holy Spirit to cultivate inspiration in our life. And that's the third key. In fact, if you're feeling blocked right now and you're like, Matt, I don't want to go in the studio. I'm not feeling it. I know you said walk by faith, but I'm just not feeling it. And I don't want to turn on worship music because I'm kind of upset right now and I'm just I'm just aggravated. You know what you need to do? You need to go out and cultivate inspiration. Now, Julia Cameron talked about this beautifully in her book, The Artist's Way. I've echoed the same sentiments in my first book, Unlocking the Heart of the Artist. We all need these regular times in our life as artists to be doing things that inspire us. You need to go do things that make you go, oh, that is beautiful, or oh, that movie was so great, or oh, I love it when I listen to that song. Or man, when I just go for a walk in the woods, all of a sudden I just, I just feel myself coming alive again. Listen, I don't know what it is for you, whether, you know, I love to go to Home Depot, go buy a new tool, or maybe you need to go to an art museum, or maybe you need to go to the art store, or maybe you need to get around friends, or go visit somebody else's studio, or go look at, you know, beautiful work in a gallery. Whatever it is, do something that's gonna cultivate inspiration inside of you to reconnect you to that place of awe and wonder that God's given you in your heart. Because you know what? It's kind of like, you know, you ever had your car, like the battery go dead. I just find, you know, when we go and allow ourselves to be inspired, when we do things that are just fun, it's kind of like a secret back door into your creative heart. It's almost like having the jumper cables on your car in that moment. What once was dead, when you put the jumper cables on it, and all of a sudden you turn it because the jumper cables are connected to a live battery, something with power, all of a sudden what? Bam! You get reignited. And so you may not need to be in the studio today. Maybe you just need to go do something that you find to be intensely fun and joyful. And I promise, listen, when you do that, God can use those times to wake you up, to reinvigorate you. And who knows, you maybe even get an idea or two to take back with you in the studio. Now, I'm telling my mentoring students this all the time in the mentoring program, you and I are responsible for the inspiration that the Holy Spirit brings us. And so when you're seeing things, hearing things, feeling things, sensing things from the Lord in the natural world, things that are inspiring you in your creative journey, you know what you need to be doing? Don't just go, oh, that's awesome. No, you need to be writing it down. If you don't have a journal, if you don't have a sketchbook, something that you are actively writing down inspirational ideas uh to be able to pray on and think on and and pursue in your life, I'm telling you, you're missing a huge part of how the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you. And listen, part of none of us, none of us feel like this, you know, oh, I'm coming into the studio every day just on cloud nine. All of us go through moments where where they're kind of peaks and valleys. But your sketchbook, your prayer journal, whatever it is that you're recording inspiration, that becomes a place where as you walk into the studio by faith, whereas you're reconnecting with Jesus, whether where you're just beginning to play in the mornings, your sketchbook is a place where you can go back to and the Holy Spirit can go, yeah, that idea that I gave you a year ago, it's time to wake that up. That idea that you had a couple of weeks ago, it's time to work on that or take the next step with that. And I promise you, when you do it, not only are you taking steps of faith, you're also showing the Lord, hey, I'm taking this creative calling seriously. I'm not only cultivating inspiration, but I'm stewarding inspiration well in my life so that I can be a faithful son, a faithful daughter in what you've called me to creatively. So, my friend, if you have been dealing with creative block, I hope today has given you all the tools you need to jump back on the horse, get in the studio with Jesus, reconnect with him, create by faith, just show up and start cultivating and stewarding inspiration on a regular basis. As you do that, not only can you overcome creative block in the moment, but you can prevent it from being a regular occurrence in your life as an artist. Hey, can I pray for you real quick? I'd love to just close this time in a really beautiful way. Father, thank you for leading my friend here to this video. Lord, thank you that you are moving supernaturally by your spirit in their life. God, thank you that this is a divine appointment. And Lord, I thank you that the thing that may have been stopping them in their creative journey has just turned into a great divine appointment for you to show up with a great solution today, to draw them to yourself, to renew their creative spirit, and to invite them into even more beautiful creativity that you have for them. God, thank you for their creative call. Thank you for the talents and gifts and graces that you've invested in them. And now, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would blow over them, Lord, that you would well up inside of them. Holy Spirit, that like a river, your word says, God, you would flow in and through them so that they would know the beautiful abundance and glory and beauty and peace and joy and all the stuff of creating with you. We thank you for that, God. And we thank you for our creative calling that you've given us, that you've invited us into in your kingdom to reveal and reflect your glory in the earth. We thank you for that, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hey, listen, friends, super glad that you were here with me today. If you want to learn more about creating your art with God, be sure to check out this video right here that's all about learning to create your art with God and in concert with the Holy Spirit. Also, if you know that God's got so much for you in your life as a Christian artist, but you know that there's just some a foundation that needs to be laid in your life and you want to grow in everything that He's got for you. I want to encourage you, please check out the foundations course. God's using it in the lives of artists all over the world to help them gain clarity, confidence, and creative freedom in Christ by laying a solid biblical foundation in their life, helping them get a clear vision for what God's called them to do, and also begin to build these same kind of daily habits that we've been talking about on this video today so that you can walk in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Listen, my friends, super glad that you were here today. Make sure to hit the subscribe button, leave me a comment, and until next time, remember, 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.