The Thriving Christian Artist

5 Biblical Principles To Transform Your Creative Life

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

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Pressure isn’t a prerequisite for great art. We walk through five biblical principles that turn the studio into a sacred place of connection, courage, and craft: abiding in the vine, receiving creativity as a gift, offering your work back to God, marrying Spirit with skill, and rooting identity in Christ so risk becomes a runway instead of a cliff. These aren’t abstract ideas; they’re battle-tested rhythms that have reshaped decades of creative work and helped thousands of artists find freedom, focus, and fruit.

We start with John 15 and the relief of creating as a connected branch rather than a lone tree. From there, we reframe the studio as a dwelling place, not just a workspace, where worship and work mingle and fruit flows naturally. Romans 12:1 guides us to see art as worship—whether your calling is personal devotion, ministry, or the marketplace—so results no longer determine value. Then we explore the “two wings” from Exodus 31: being filled with the Spirit and skilled in the craft. Excellence becomes love made visible, a carrier of presence that honors the message instead of competing with it.

Identity changes everything. When worth is secured in Christ, exploration gets bolder and mistakes lose their sting. We talk through the mindset shifts that free you to try, iterate, and grow without fear of losing yourself. Finally, we anchor the journey in perseverance. Galatians 6 and James 1 promise harvest to those who keep showing up, even when progress feels slow. Consistency beats intensity, small wins compound, and God works in both process and product to form you for greater things.

If these principles stirred something in you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a creative friend who needs fresh hope. Ready to build these rhythms with support? Join our Created to Thrive Foundations course—nine lessons, daily projects, and a community of Christian artists walking this path together.

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SPEAKER_00:

There are five principles hidden in God's word for artists that have completely transformed my creative life and the lives of the thousands of artists that I've mentored over the past 17 years. But listen, these aren't just theory. They're actually timeless biblical truths that I've discovered and practiced over the last 30 years as a working artist. And here's the amazing part. When you apply them to your life, they take the pressure off, they allow you to actually enjoy your creative process again and even give you supernatural confidence that God is at work in your creative life, even when you can't see it. So in today's video, I'm going to show you all five principles, right where they come from scripture, and how to start applying them in your life today. So let's jump in. So the first principle is really right out of one of my favorite places in scripture in John 15. You probably know it as you know, the parable when Jesus talked about I'm the vine, you're the branches apart from me, you can do nothing. Listen, the first principle is this idea that abiding in the vine, which is, you know, abiding in Jesus, abiding in the presence of God, that is our creative power source as artists. You know, I found in my own life and in the lives of so many that I've mentored over the years, it's really easy to separate your creative life, to have your, you know, creative life over here, your spiritual life over here, your family life over there, your business life over there. But that was never the way that God intended for us to live as creatives in his kingdom. He designed us to live as holistic beings, as sons and daughters that are walking with him. And I love this scripture in John 15, 4 and 5. It says, Abide in me, or and I abide in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Apart from me, and what'd he say? You can do nothing. Isn't it so amazing how the enemy tries to tempt us and say, oh, you can do this by yourself, or just copy what everybody else is doing, or just read all the great art books, or all you got to get is the skill. And no, listen, we know as believers, we can't do anything without the power and presence of God moving in and through our life. And so if you if you get a picture in your mind right now, I want you to see Jesus as the vine, his presence, learning to walk with him every day and be with him and involve him through the power of the Holy Spirit in your creative process. That's your source of life, your source of ideas, the power that you need, the effectiveness that you need, the joyful living for abundant life. That's where it's all cut, it all comes from. And you, you and I, we're the branch. So, in other words, we're the receiver, we're the conduit, we're we're the vessel. See, I think a lot of times we get messed up when we try to make ourselves and our ideas the source, and we try to make God's ability and power the vessel. We're like, God, would you bless my mess? But no, God wants to do it the other way. Listen, he's the unlimited source of all creativity. The first way he reveals himself to humanity in his word is as an artist. His spirit hovered over all the chaos and all the void, and he said, Let there be light. And in that moment, listen, his creative nature came and brought order and beauty and life to everything that was dark and dead and chaotic and void. And listen, friend, that same power, the Bible says, is at work in us. The Bible says the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working and living and resident in us right now as sons and daughters of in Jesus Christ. And so again, realize he's the source. We're the conduit. And then what's the fruit? Well, the fruit is our art. The fruit is the things that we're doing every day in our life as artists. That that naturally flows out of connection with him. Listen, when I first started realizing this, I was like, wow. You know, I kind of grew up, maybe you grew up this way in kind of, you know, church culture, thinking that I had to produce all this fruit for the Lord, that I had to do all this kind of stuff and work for him. And I was just a servant, you know, uh for the Lord and all this. And then you start reading the words of Jesus and you're like, no, Jesus didn't call us servants. He calls us sons and daughters, he calls us his brothers and sisters, he calls us friend, and he invites us into this process of co-laboring with him through the power of the Holy Spirit. So fruit is not something that I can produce myself. Fruit is something that is the natural outflow of a relationship with him. In other words, you may you may be saying, well, Matt, are you just saying all I got to do is get in the studio and do my best and invite the Holy Spirit to be with me in that process? And that if I'll be faithful, he'll be fruitful through me. Yeah, that's a lot more simple than we make it in our life. And I just think about, you know, an apple tree, an orange tree. There, there's no way that an apple tree or an orange tree can sit there and go, I'm gonna produce an apple. I'm gonna try my best to produce more fruit this year. Nope. What is that? What does that branch do? All that branch that produces that fruit, all it has to do is stay open and stay connected. And listen, friend, if you'll do that with the Lord every day in your studio, if you'll stay open and connected, if you'll cultivate his presence in your life, there will be a flow of the Holy Spirit that begins to move through you. So as far as just, you know, practically, how does this work in your life? I would say daily pursuing the presence of God in your creative expression, kind of like David did, right? You know, David was just doing the things that he did every day, out tending the sheep. But what was he doing? Involving his creativity and involving his love for music and worship and the presence of God in those things. It reminds me of that verse, you know, whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord, right? Also create in the context of communion with him, not just compartmentalization that you're off there by yourself. And again, I've got tons of videos here on the channel if you want to more on that about creating with the Holy Spirit and learning to hear God's voice as an artist. There's so much here for you to uh to dive into. And I hope you'll take advantage of some of those as you continue to subscribe and check out the channel and be a part of what God's raising up here. But also you start to realize that your studio space is not just a workspace, it's actually a dwelling place. It's a sacred space where you and God, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of his word, the power of the creative gift that he's given you, that's where all of that starts to converge and where you start to hear and sense ideas and inspiration and start experiencing breakthrough through his presence moving through you. And you start to create your work not just for God as an act of obedience, but as an opportunity to offer it to him, to create it with him so that he's intimately involved in the creative process with you. See, I don't know about you, but I I try to do it the other way for a long time, right? Lord, bless my mess. Lord, I'm an artist over here, but I'm a Christian on Sunday. Lord, I know you love me, but I got to get after this thing to build my art business and to make this art that'll sell. And I hope you'll bless me, but I'm not really looking for day by day, moment by moment, breath by breath input from your presence. And listen, when we do that, even though our hearts may be well-meaning, when we do that, we actually start creating in isolation from God. We start striving and working out of that emptiness and experiencing burnout. We start trying to produce that fruit on our own, which gets exhausting and frustrating. And we end up becoming the very thing that Jesus said you don't want to be, which is what? A disconnected branch that ends up ultimately withering and dying. And so listen, Jesus makes this a kind of a no-brainer situation for us. He's like, listen, all you got to do, you don't have to be the best artist in the world, you don't have to be the most profitable artist, you don't have to be the most talented artist, you don't have to have the fanciest studio, you don't have to all have all the expensive materials. All you gotta do is just say yes to the calling of being artist in your life and stay connected to me. And guess what? If you do that, you'll start to bear fruit naturally. You'll start to create from that place of rest and trust. And guess what? Over time, the pressure from that lifts, and all of a sudden, his presence becomes your priority. You know, one of the things I try to do in learning this first principle is every day when I come in the studio, just invite the Lord. Say, Lord, I know you're here, I know you're with me. You know, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit lives inside us, so we don't have to invite him from way far off. Like he never left, right? When you became a Christian, he started living inside of you. And so he walked into the studio with you. And I find that when you can just say, Lord, heighten my awareness right now of you. Heighten my awareness, God, of your presence. And I sometimes I turn on worship music, sometimes I'll begin to read his word, sometimes I'm journaling a little bit. But whatever I'm doing, I'm starting that day, that creative day with him and inviting him into that process. And listen, as you do, you you you just can't start you once you do it, once you start doing this on a regular basis, and I I've experienced this in my own life, and we hear it all the time on the channel, it absolutely changes the way that you approach your creative life, and it becomes such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful experience in his presence, the way that God designed us to live as artists. All right. Now, listen, principle number two is then realizing that our creativity, again, is not this thing that we have to perform for God. Your creativity is a gift and your art is an offering. Listen, I could teach forever on this. I'm not going to go too far down this rabbit trail, but everything in the kingdom of God is given to us by grace and we receive it by faith, right? God gives it to us by grace and we receive it by faith. Well, that's the way our creativity comes to us as well. Did you know that when you were created, when God created you, He put within you a creative gift. That's why you've had this desire to create for so long. That's why you love color and beauty and being in the studio. That's why you can be in there creating and hours go by. That's not just because you know you're you're just an artist all by yourself. You're responding, you're living out of the gift and the design that God put within you. That's an incredible thing. And and the art that you create is a gift and an offering back to him. I love this verse in Romans 12:1. It says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Again, when your creative work, the things that you're creating with your body, the things that you're thinking of, the things you're creating with your hands, the things that are coming out of your mouth, these things are worship when we offer them to him. And I love it. Remember in Psalms, it talks about that that God inhabits the praises of his people. I believe that when we create and we invite the Holy Spirit into that process, he's living and moving and having his being not only within us, but through us as artists, so that we're changing the process and that the people who come in contact with our work are changing that process as well. So, see, creativity is a gift from God, and your art is an offering of worship back to him. And it doesn't matter whether it's meditation for yourself personally, doesn't matter if you're doing it as ministry before the Lord and before, you know, to bless other people, or it doesn't matter if you're doing it in the marketplace that God's designed you to start selling your work and creating a consistent income. We help artists do that every day in our in our mentoring program and in our courses. Doesn't matter what what you're doing it, you know, the the purpose of it or the the mode of creativity that it is, the value, listen, the value of what you're doing as an artist in your creative process is that you're faithfully doing what God created you to do with him. See, when God puts an investment in you, he expects us to take it seriously and to lean into it. I think about the parable of the talents, you know, Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30, such a great, powerful, foundational um, you know, parable for all of us as artists. But in that story, if you don't know it, you know, Jesus, who's the master of the field at that point, he gives different amounts of he calls talents, which is money, which is actually large amounts of money. He gave it to the different servants and he gave it to them uh based on what they had done in the past. In other words, their faithfulness up until that point determined how much talent, and in that, in this sense, it was a financial investment, how much how many talents that the master of the field invested into them. And you know, the tragedy of that, one of the things that you read in that story is that at the end, you know, both the first two guys actually doubled their investment. And Jesus said, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a little, now I'm gonna make you ruler over much. The third guy, though, guess what? He was afraid. He was a he was scared he didn't measure up. He had a wrong view of the master of the field, believed he was going to be a hard man, the Bible says. And what did he do? Out of fear and unbelief, he went and hid his talent. Listen, God doesn't want you to hide your talent. God doesn't want you to shrink back or to try to do this out of your own strength. God has called you as a steward of creativity and out of his presence, and he's given you a gift to develop it and to offer it back to him so that he can not only form you into the image of Christ as you do it, but he can also bless others through it. See, when you start to realize, really get in this second principle that, you know, my art is a gift from God, and my or my creativity is a gift from God, and my art is my offering back to God, that he's the source, right? Principle number one. Again, the pressure starts coming off, and you start realizing, wow, all I gotta be, all I gotta be is faithful, and God is gonna make me the one that's fruitful. I'm responsible for the faithfulness. God's responsible for the fruitfulness. And the beautiful thing is, as you're faithful to walk with the Lord, he takes you to places, he opens doors, he makes a way, he gives you ideas, he puts you in places that you never, ever, ever thought would ever be possible in your own strength. And that's right, because he's producing fruit that we don't even know is there. He's producing fruit through us that we didn't even think was possible. And the beautiful thing is, it is impossible without him, but with him, all things are possible. So, you know, if I'm you right now, I would just begin to say, Lord, thank you for this gift. Thank you that you're my source. Thank you that as I abide in you, you're gonna make me fruitful as I am faithful. And every time you walk in the studio, when you start walking into the studio, anytime you're feeling though, that pressure to make it happen by yourself or that pressure to perform, just take a moment, take a deep breath and say, Lord, I'm not agreeing with that. I'm not agreeing with that old pressure that the enemy's trying to bring in my life. God, I'm gonna offer my creativity to you again today. Holy Spirit, I'm gonna invite you into this process. I'm gonna breathe in your presence and breathe out all that pressure so that I can flow with you today, so I can trust your timing and your process in my life as an artist. Listen, for me, that has made a huge, huge, huge difference. Now, principle number three is that creating with God requires two wings, almost like a bird or a plane. And the Bible shows us what those two wings are actually in Exodus 31, when it introduces the first artist uh in the Bible, other than God revealed himself to humanity as a creator. The first artist that we see in God's word is in Exodus 31. His name was Bezalel. And it says that he was filled with the Spirit of God and also skilled in every manner of workmanship. I really believe that this is the biblical model for creativity in the kingdom, that we're filled with the Spirit of God, and that we're also skilled in every manner of workmanship. Now, what does that mean? Well, that word filled is actually talking about the continual infilling of divine inspiration and God's presence and his anointing. It's this idea that what we've just been talking about, this is a gift from God. God's my source. As I do the thing that God's created me to do, I'm doing it in the context of his presence, not out here on my own trying to make it happen. This is the place where your art becomes prophetic, right? Is the Bible says that the spirit of prophecies prophecy is what? The testimony of Jesus. That our work and the very demonstration of our lives as artists should be these prophetic declarations. Well, listen, that didn't happen just by ourselves. That happens as we're creating and living and moving and having our being in Christ and by his spirit as we create in the studio. And listen, when we do that, that divine inspiration starts to flow through us. And it not only impacts us, because how many of you know we get changed in the process anytime we're in the presence of God and moving with him, but also our work begins to be a conduit for others to be changed as well. And so listen, I love it that this is something that I'm getting to, you know, find enjoyable, uh, something that I'm finding transformative. And at the same time, even though I can't see it, even though I can't understand it all, even though that fruit may happen years from now, I know that God is faithful to make an impact, not only in my life, but through my life when I am filled with his spirit. Now, the other part, though, the second wing is what? Well, is to be skilled. I I love to think about this as two wings of a plane, really, because if you just have one, you know, you're just filled with the spirit. There are a lot of artists out there who are like, oh man, I love Jesus. I got all these dreams and this passion, and God's called me to this, and God's called me to that. But they've never taken a lesson, they've never honed their skills, they don't show up in the studio except any just every now and then when they want to, but they're expecting all these big things to happen from God. Well, listen, just because you got a promise doesn't mean it's actually going to be fulfilled in your life unless you learn to start co-laboring with that promise and our skill development. That is actually honing our craft, becoming better at what we do, showing up in the studio on a regular basis. This is how we partner with the partner, with the promise and the presence of God in our creativity. Now, at the same time, you can't just be in the studio all the time and trying to make it happen yourself out of your own strength and never involve the power and presence of God. Why? Because you're going to dry up. You're going to dry up. It's just, you're just going to become the artist that just going through the motion, just making things that sell, just kind of killing time and completely separate the life-giving, joyful presence and power that God has for you in your creative process. And so that's why I'm saying it's both. Skill development is practical, yes, but it's also very spiritual. It's a way that we say, God, come in and enable my hands through practice and through showing up in the studio and through making work and through taking classes and through learning the techniques that I learned. Lord, enlarge my capacity. Why? So that I can move with the freedom and with the impact and with the power that you have designed for me that you put on my heart. See, I don't know about you, but most of the time, I think a lot of artists are like this. The things that God is showing us in our mind, they're bigger. They're more complicated. They're they're further out there than we think that we can do right now. And so we have to have that enlarging of our skill base, the enlarging of our capacity and our skills to be able to do the thing that God's called us to do, but we can't do it without him. We can't do it without him. And so I just love this idea that when we marry skill and the presence of God, all of a sudden we begin to enlarge. We begin to enlarge our capacity. We we enlarge the tent stakes of our heart to make room for the blessing that God wants to bring. You know, not only do we see that in Exodus 31, we see it in 2 Chronicles 25, 1 through 7. It talks about Asaph, Judith, and Hemon, you know, these men that God raised up to lead the musicians in the Tabernacle of David. And it says that Asaph taught the musicians how to do what? Play skillfully and prophesy. See, skillful artistry, skillful creativity becomes a carrier for God's presence. And I and I and I've seen it the other way too. Unskillful, not taking your art seriously, just kind of slapping things together, that can actually become a barrier for people because they see our inabilities. And so I'm just saying, listen, when you begin to involve God in this process, and you don't have to be perfect, you don't have to be at a certain level, God can use you wherever you are. But I'm just telling you, when you begin to get serious about saying, God, not only do I want your presence, I want your power moving through me as I develop myself. As an artist, you start to realize, hey, these things are not at odds. They're multipliers. They're accelerators. And so I would have just invite you today, as you're learning about these five biblical principles that transform your creative process, I would invite you to start committing to develop these together simultaneously, to view practice and showing up in the studio and expanding your skills and an artist. See that just as much of a spiritual practice as is your devotion time and journaling and prayer before the Lord. Listen, when you bring both of those things together, you're going to be amazed at the acceleration and the growth and the level of fulfillment that starts to grow in you as an artist. When your studio becomes both a place of work and a place of worship, a really sacred space for you. All right. Now listen, if you're loving this content right now, I want to, I can't, I can't go on without saying this. Please hit the subscribe button. Please ring the bell, hit the like, leave me a comment. Let me know which one of these are actually resonating with you. Maybe some of these are brand new for you. Others, maybe you said, Oh, I've heard that before, but I've not been practicing it. Listen, we love to encourage you every week with great content. And if you want to take this even further, that's why I created the Created to Thrive Foundations course, where you can actually start building these principles into your life in the context of community with other Christian artists. You can find out all the information right here in the link below. All right. Now, principle number four is this creativity, which again we know is this gift from God, our creativity flows if we if we position it correctly, if we operate out of it correctly, it flows from identity in Christ, not from performance. See, I've just learned this over the years that whatever you believe about yourself, about God, about what's possible in your life, about your art, it directly affects your creative flow. Remember, the Bible says in Proverbs, as a man thinks in his heart, what? In other words, our external life is a reflection of our internal life. That's why in the foundations course and everything that I teach, renewing your mind and having a healthy identity in Christ is so foundational. And again, I just love going back to David. You know, the Bible talks about uh in 1 Samuel 13 and 1 Samuel 16, it talks about this idea that God called David a man after his own heart. The Bible also described David as a skillful musician, all right, not just an excited musician, but a skillful one, a brave warrior and a man of God. In other words, his creative flow, all right, the creative flow that David had as a poet, as a writer, as a musician, as a, you know, both a singer and as a as an instrumentalist, his identity flowed from who he was in God, as God's beloved son, not trying to prove himself. I mean, think of that. That's one of the beautiful things that we see about David, right? David was out in the wilderness, out caring for the sheep, out sitting on the rock with his harp and lyre, you know, just playing. He wasn't doing that to try to prove himself to God. He wasn't doing that to try to be the best fiddle player in the county. He was doing that just as the natural outflow, the natural overflow of who he knew he was in God, as God's beloved son. And listen, this is why I think identity is so critical for all creatives and for our creative process, because all creativity requires risk. I'm gonna say that again. All of your creativity, all of my creativity requires risk. Why? Because every time that we show up and create, we're stepping out into the unknown. We're we're bringing something into existence that that only existed in our mind, maybe only existed in the heart of God and in our imagination, this place of formation that God's given us internally. And if you don't know, you know, if you don't have confidence in who you are as an artist and who God's called you to be, you can get freaked out, right? You you really don't know. Is this thing gonna work or not? Are people gonna like it? Is this gonna sell? Is anybody gonna buy my work? Listen, if you don't have your identity in Christ settled, the enemy will be forever attacking you and hitting you at every open door in your identity. This is not only true in just life in general, it's absolutely true in your art, and it's absolutely like doubly true if God's called you in the art business. I mean, I've been coaching artists, you know, how to turn your art hobby or ministry into a profitable art business for many, many, many years, over 17 years now. And I can say, listen, the number one barrier that artists face in actually having a profitable, consistent, fulfilling business has zero to do with talent. It's like, I would say, 85% what's going on up here. And this idea that what is happening in your identity, whether that's settled in Christ or not, that is a huge, huge factor. See, artists who don't know who they are in Christ resist risk. We like to, we try to play it safe. Why? Because any risk feels like a threat to your identity. And so if their art fails, they feel like a failure. If you make a mistake, they feel like they're a mistake. If the if the business decision that they they chose to to do, the show or or the marketing idea or the social media post or whatever it is, if that fails, if it doesn't work out, then they feel like they don't work out, like they're not worthy of celebration. If the painting or the poem or the sculpture or whatever it is doesn't turn out, and if it doesn't sell or if the show doesn't go well, all of a sudden they feel like it's this glaring statement about them. And so fear of failure and fear of risk leads to what paralysis, playing it safe, and never really choosing to step out. And listen, you cannot, you cannot be an artist and not be willing to step out in risk, not be able to step out on the word of the Lord, not being able to step out into the unknown. You have to be willing to be able to step out in risk. And I'm just telling you, artists who are firm in their identity in Christ are the ones who are willing to step out in faith. Creatively, they're willing to try new techniques. Creatively, when you're affirmed and solid in who you are in Christ, you can explore bold ideas. You can, you know, create what's on your heart. You don't have to worry about, well, this is the thing that's always sold. I gotta keep making this. No, you can do the things that God's put on your heart. You can launch new offers, you can try a different show, you can try a whole new different project. Why? Because your identity is not based on what you do, it's based on who you are in Christ. Listen, if you can get this, whoo! I mean, we this is the core of what we do in the Foundations Course, which is why God's using it so powerfully in the lives of so many artists all over the world. We deal with the fears and the strongholds and the traumas and the mindsets of that have held us back from the very things that God's called us to. And listen, I'm telling you, when you can, when you can move all that over to Jesus and you can start building a healthy identity in Christ, I'm telling you, everything changes. Why? Because you're able to actually start stepping into not only the creativity, but the life that God designed for you from the very beginning. Listen, this is really, really, really huge. I love that verse in Psalm 27, 4. It talks about, you know, David's one thing, right? He said, you know, one thing have I asked, one thing will I seek, to dwell in the house of the Lord all of my days and to gaze upon his beauty. Listen, was his security based in, I better get over there to the tabernacle and write another song? I better get out there and beat an beat another, you know, uh win another war. I better get out there and prove myself. No, he's saying, hey, I can put pause on all that. Only thing I want to do is be in God's presence, be who he's created me to be, do what he's called me to do. He knew that his security came from who he was before God, not what he produced. And guess what? It freed him. It freed him to do the things that God had called him to do so that he could create from that fullness and that identity, not for it. And we'll say that again. Healthy artists, David included, create from that place of healthy identity in Christ, not for it, not trying to win God's approval. Listen, when your art is an overflow of who you are, uh everything, everything, everything changes. And so that's why that is such a big, big, big principle in these five principles. All right. Now, number five, all right. Principle number five, perseverance and showing up daily builds the creative life. You know, I don't know about you, but I've just realized over 30 years, good economy, bad economy, uh, full of creative ideas, not as much, we're doing ideas that are working, some not as much. I've I've learned that being an artist and being an artist in the kingdom requires tenacity. It requires perseverance, it requires you showing up. I love that verse in Galatians that talks about let's not, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap the harvest of what? If we don't give up. I love it when the Bible talks about, hey, if you'll just let patience have its perfect work in you, if you at the right time you will reap a harvest. In other words, what the harvest is promised to those who persevere. The harvest is promised to those who keep showing up. Listen, I don't know about you if you're new into your art journey or you're coming back to your art journey, but the reality of the creative journey is this there will always be, 100% today, baby. There will always be a temptation to give up. There will always be a time when things feel too slow, like they're not moving fast enough. There will always be times when you don't feel like your work is good enough. There will always be times when you feel like you're not seeing the amount of progress or the speed of progress that you're on. There will always be opportunities for you to compare yourself and let that comparison steal your joy and your fulfillment. There will always be opportunities when you took a risk and it didn't pay off in the way that you thought it would. There are always those opportunities to just say, you know what? I'm gonna throw on the towel. Or there's always those opportunities to let those little issues that didn't work out the exact way, to let those be a decision-making factor in whether God's called you to be an artist or not. I heard somebody say years ago, Matt, don't ever let process questions become purpose questions. And boy, I love that. Because listen, there's a lot of things that go wrong in the process, but that has no bearing on whether God has called me according to his purposes in my life as an artist. See, here's the truth that you got to hold on to, I think. And again, just a core, core principle for all of us as creatives. God is at work, right? We know this mentally, but we got to get it from here to here, right? God is at work even when you can't see him. And he's using both the process of you creating the art and the product to form you into the image of Christ, to be used for his glory as a city shining on a hill, to develop character and perseverance and trust and hope and faith inside of you and to prepare you what? For greater things. Friend, I'm just gonna tell you, if I'd have wanted to give up at the first thing that went wrong in my art career, I'd have been, I would not be walking in the things I'm walking in today. You know, I look back at my life. There were tons of opportunities to give up. And yet what happened? I didn't. I just chose to, sometimes I had to get in a pile. Sometimes I had to just crawl over with Jesus and grab my Bible and turn on the worship music and be like, God, I don't know. This doesn't make any sense. Yet will I praise you. Yet will I put my trust in you. I I think about in James 1, verses 2 through 4. It says, Count it all joy, brother, sister. When you meet trials of various kinds, you know that the testing of your faith what? Produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect so that you may be made what? Perfect and complete, lacking nothing. See this creative struggle that we all walk through that's just normal to life. Jesus said, In this world, you're gonna have trouble. It's formative, it's not wasted. The difficulties and the waiting and the unsuredness and the the dark times, these are not wasted times. These are the things that are producing something in us that is gonna enable you to walk in the things that God has for you. And so, as a regular part of your life as an artist, I would say, you know what? One of the things you got to get used to doing and persevering is just showing up daily. I say this all the time. If you've been around this channel, you've heard it before. If God cared enough and thought it was important enough to give you your creative gift, you ought to think it's important enough to show up and pursue it daily. It's just the truth. Showing up with small, faithful steps compounds and builds momentum over time. Consistency always beats intensity, right? I say it like this: I always say momentum begins with your very first win. It grows and grows as you do it again, right? That's just how it works. And so being an artist requires that tenacity. It's not just talent, it's discipline that comes together with his presence and with the skill that enables us to be able to build and grow and be able to enlarge our capacity and walk into everything that God's called us to. And so just practically, I would say, you know, commit to consistent practice. Commit to showing up in the studio, even when you don't feel live yet. Trust that God's got a plan. Remember that that God's at work and don't despise, you love this. I love this, this, this uh scripture that says, don't despise the days of small beginnings. I'd add, don't despise the days of slow seasons. Don't despise the days when everything doesn't work out the way you think it does. God is at work if we keep showing up and we keep trusting and we keep offering and we keep inviting him into this process. So listen, my friend, these five principles again, abide in the vine. Your creativity is a gift and your art is an offering. We got to have both wings of being filled and skilled. Identity always trumps performance. And number five, we got to develop perseverance in our life as artists. These five principles, right out of the word of God, when you begin to put them into your life and practice, they will transform you and enable you to carry and experience everything that God has for you in the kingdom as an artist. Jesus, I thank you for my friend right now. Lord, I thank you that as they're walking this journey with you, Lord, I thank you that it's your word and it's your spirit, God, that is awakening all of this in us right now. God, I thank you that whatever they needed to hear today, Lord, your Holy Spirit is speaking it to them. I'm just the mouthpiece today, Lord, but you're the voice. Lord, you're the one that brings change. And so, Lord, we just say, whatever we needed to hear today out of this, God, we rub it in. We say, Thank you, Lord. God, lead us in the way that we can more fully cooperate with you so that we can walk in everything that you have for us, so that we can be found worthy of the calling that you've set before us. We thank you for all of that in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey, listen again, friend. Thanks for being here today. Make sure to hit the subscribe button. Also, if you want to learn how to start putting these five principles into practice in your life, there's no better way than the foundations course. It's just 27 bucks. It's nine lessons over nine weeks with daily art projects, community with other Christian artists, and me walking with you every day as we build these things into your life. Join us in Foundations and let this year be an incredible breakthrough year for you. I love you. Make sure to watch this next video that's coming up right here on the channel. And remember, till next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.