7 Powerful Shifts That Happen When Artists Trust God to Provide

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What would actually change if you trusted God to provide for you as an artist not just as a belief, but as a way of living? I’m talking about the moment the pressure to produce, sell, and prove yourself starts to lift, and a real, grounded peace takes its place. That shift is more than emotional relief. It’s the starting line for a new kind of creative life where God is your source and your studio, schedule, and income decisions stop being driven by fear. 

We walk through seven tangible things that begin happening when you lean into trusting God for financial provision as a Christian creative. We unpack how striving creates guesswork and trend chasing, while trust helps you hear God’s voice and move with divine strategy that fits your unique calling. I also share personal stories from building an art business, including a painful “worst show” experience that led to a reset and a surprising commission, plus examples of divine appointments that opened doors I could never have planned through networking or marketing alone. 

You’ll also hear how stewardship leads to multiplication from what’s already in your hand, why supernatural provision can arrive through unexpected channels, and what it means to become a river and not a reservoir with generosity and open-handed living. If you’ve been wrestling with money anxiety, burnout, or the constant feeling that you have to make it all happen, this conversation is designed to help you renew your mindset, reclaim creative freedom in Christ, and take your next step with confidence. 

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs peace around provision, and leave a review so more artists can find it. What’s one area where you’ve been striving instead of trusting?

Find out more about The Created to Thrive Foundations Course 

Transcript

The Trust Question For Artists

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever wondered what would really happen if you trusted God to provide for you fully as an artist? I mean, not just believed it in your head, but actually started living like it was really true. Listen, there's a lot of artists out there that love Jesus and they believe the Bible. They go to church. They want to trust Him. But when it comes to things like financial provision, there's still this underlying pressure that just won't go away. Well, listen, today I want to share with you seven powerful things that actually start happening when you start fully trusting God to abundantly provide for you as a creative person because when this clicks, it changes everything. Well, hey, my friend, I'm Matt Tommy. And as a professional artist for over 30 years and mentor to thousands of Christian artists all over the world, I am really passionate about helping creatives walk in clarity, confidence, and creative freedom in Christ so that we can create with God and reveal his glory in the world through what we do creatively. Listen, if you're on that same kind of journey and you're learning to trust God more with your life and your art, be sure to leave me a comment down below. Introduce yourself and of course let me know what you do creatively. I read every comment and I love seeing who's watching the channel every week. So, you know, I've taught a lot about God's promise of abundant provision for artists here on the channel. And as we get started today, if you want to know more about that biblical basis, I'll be sure to drop a link to a great video below that'll help you get started. But here's the deal that I really want to hit today. When you really start trusting God for your provision as an artist, the first thing that happens is this all that pressure that you've been feeling, it starts to lift and peace takes its place. And listen, this is huge because most artists, and I was like this for a lot of years, we we live under a lot of pressure, pressure that we were never meant to carry, pressure to produce great art, pressure to sell that art, pressure to prove ourselves in the marketplace, to survive financially. But listen, thankfully, peace, I mean, real deep, lasting, abiding, you know, God-sourced peace. That's the fruit of trusting God, not striving on your own. And when you trust Him, you're no longer carrying all the weight of that lie inside your head that says, you got to make this work, because you start living from a place of God, you are my source, not me. And listen, when you start to live from that place, it doesn't make you passive, it actually makes you more powerful because you're not reacting to life and all these pressures out of fear. You start responding through his spirit from a place of peace as God's child, not somebody out there that's performing for God or trying to make it happen in your own strength. Now, listen, if you're listening and you're thinking, oh my gosh, that totally sounds like me. I mean, I've been living under that kind of pressure. Listen, you are not alone. In fact, most artists have never really been told how to actually renew their mind to what God's word actually says about provision and really step into the kind of peace that we're talking about today. That that was my story for a long time, and it's exactly why I created my foundations course. It's designed to help you break out of those old patterns of thinking and living that are super common and start walking in clarity, confidence, and creative freedom in Christ. Hey, if that's something you need, I'll put a link down below in the comments just so you can check it out. So the second thing that happens after you did striving on your own is that you start operating out of God's divine strategy. And listen, I love this. This is really where it starts to get exciting for us as artists because see, when you're striving, ultimately you're guessing, right? You're reacting to everything, you're trying to figure it out on your own, trying to chase trends, you're doing what everybody else says that you should do. But listen, when you start trusting God, you start focusing on hearing his voice. And as you do, he begins to show you divine strategy, things that you could have never figured out on your own, creative ideas that are specific for you, directions for your journey that may not even make sense at the very beginning, especially to anybody else, and business strategies that are aligned with your life and your business, not somebody else's. See, this is where your creative life in the kingdom stops being random and reactionary and starts being spirit-led. Listen, I've seen this over and over again in my life and in the lives of my students. Artists who are stuck for years suddenly get this idea dropped in their heart from the Lord, one shift in direction, and everything starts to open up. They meet one person and boom, you know, it's not because they started working harder, it's because they started listening to the voice of the Lord and trusting him every step of the way. You know, I can sit here all day and tell stories about how God taught me how to start living out of this divine strategy for my art business. But I can remember early on when we had just moved to Asheville, North Carolina, I had been doing my art as a hobby for years. We moved to Asheville. I was still leading worship, some uh part-time at a church and starting to get my business you know open and everything. And the Lord told me when when I opened my my art studio, you know, down in the River Arts Center, he said, Matt, I want you to really use this as your home base. And when you travel, because I just written Unluck in the Heart of the Artist back then, it's like 2009, 10, 11, right in there. He said, I want you to use this art studio as your home base. And when you go out, I want it to be for ministry, but you know, stay here at the studio. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring the people to you. And you know, I was like, Yeah, that's awesome. But then part of me was like, that didn't make any sense. Like, I got to go do something, right? And so I started doing what everybody else did. And you know, I had a measure of success. I was running around doing art shows and I was getting in better shows, and I was getting in, you know, getting some accolades and some magazines and that sort of thing. Before long, you know, a couple of years later, I was just running around doing the same things that everybody else was doing. Well, you know, the Lord will kind of let you get out there a little bit and find out the wisdom of your own strategy. And so I had applied for a show uh up in Baltimore, the American Craft Council. I mean, it was a big, big show with several hundred artists, nationally recognized show, very expensive to get. I th I think back then my booth fee was like$1,500 just to be in there. Plus, I had to pay, you know, hotel for all five or six nights and parking. And I mean, it was just it was a big investment. But man, I was starting to learn how faith worked, and I was just believing God he was gonna bless it and it was gonna be awesome and all this kind of thing. And I went up there and I had taken a lot of great work and I sat there and man, I was ready, I was loaded for bear as we say in the South. I was ready to do it, man. And uh I got up there and I had one of the worst shows of my life. In fact, I barely just did, just barely made my booth fee and my expenses. And I was so disappointed. In fact, I was I was beyond disappointed. I was I was really angry, you know, at the Lord. And on the way, as I'm as I'm perking up, I'm trying to get, you know, I'm trying to try to get all my stuff packed in the van. And I gotta spend one more night in a hotel than the next morning. I'm going back to Asheville. And I'm driving through the Shenandoah Valley, and I remember asking the Lord, like, Lord, what in the world is going like? Why thought that you said that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, all this kind of stuff. And I just kind of, you know, the Lord will let you vent sometimes. I was just venting to the Lord, and I remember in that moment, he said, You really want to talk about this? I said, Yeah. And he said, You remember when I told you that I'd given you your studio to be a hub and a home base for you? Yeah. And you remember that I told you that if you'd be faithful to stay in there and doing your work out of there, that I would bring the clients to you and that when you traveled, I wanted to be for ministry so that you wouldn't get too so burnt out and all that? Yeah, I do remember that. So what are we doing? And I was just like, you know, I just it was that one of those moments, like, you know, the spirit of the Lord hit me in the car. And I repented right then. I knew that I had I had just tried to operate again, not out of his divine strategy, but out of my strategy that made sense in my mind, right? And I was like, Lord, what do I do? And he told me in that moment on that on that drive back, it was like eight hours. He started giving me a strategy of what he wanted me to do with my studio space. And he said, I want you to go back and get the studio ready to sell. And I was like, He wants me to sell the studio. Oh no, you know, and I was renting this space. I was like, what's going on? And uh he said, No, I want you to prepare your studio as a sales environment. And he started reminding me of ideas and dreams that I had and other studios he had brought me in and shown me and all this kind of stuff. And he just started giving me, just again, in the spirit, as he's speaking to me, just giving me a list of things to do. And so I came back and talked with my wife, and uh, you know, we we had kind of a come to Jesus meeting as as well. And um, she's used to my stubbornness by by now. And um, but you know, we spent about the next two and a half weeks doing everything that the Lord had encouraged us to do to the best of my ability. It cost us a couple of thousand dollars of upgrades and lighting, and we had to build some things and and pedestals and you know, all this stuff. But I did exactly what the Lord said, even though I I honestly I kind of felt like Noah, right, building an ark. Like, is this really gonna work? Like, is it really gonna rain? I promise you. We got finished on a Friday, and that Saturday, I went in about 10 o'clock, and I worked all day till about 3 30 or so when I was and I was gonna close at 4. About 3 30, a couple walked in and they said, Are you Matt? I said, Yeah. And uh they said, Well, we're so-and-so. Um, we've driven up from Atlanta. We were actually planning on coming to see you a few weeks ago in Baltimore at the American Craft Council show, but we didn't get a chance to come. We've driven up from Atlanta because we love your work and we want to commission a piece of your work. And I was like, I could not, I mean, it was one of those moments, like I could not believe this. And they commissioned the largest, most expensive piece of work that I had done up till that point. And what happened when they walked out the door, I was just absolutely blown away, like a God moment, like, okay, God, I get it. Your ways are not my ways, your ways are better than my ways. And my friend, that opened up years, years of the absolute favor of God, double doors of favor, opportunity for me to sell my art, stay in a place of rest in my studio, allow the Lord to bring me clients. He he began to do other things, and I again I could just tell you story after story. All I'm saying is this trust me, when you start trusting God for your provision, you start operating by this divine strategy, it changes everything. That peace comes and you start realizing, hey, even though this doesn't make sense in my mind, I am totally willing to follow it because his ways are so much better than my ways. Now, listen, let me just say this. If this is really resonating with you right now, be sure to drop me a line in the comments and let me know how this is connecting with your heart because this next one builds right on top of it. See, the third thing that happens when you start trusting God for your provision is this you start seeing multiplication from what's already in your hand. And again, I love this. Instead of constantly looking out, you know, beyond yourself for what you don't have, you start stewarding what you do have, your current skills, your current work, your current opportunities and relationships. And as you walk by faith with what's in your hand, God begins to supernaturally multiply it. And not always at once, but but over time, this is the pattern that we see all throughout scripture. God never asks us to start with what we don't have, He always asks you to trust Him with what you have in your hand already. And listen, as you do, what happens? Well, increase, multiplication, acceleration comes. Not because you forced it, not because it was all you, but because you were faithful with what was in your hand. Now, the fourth thing, and this is one of my favorites, divine appointments start showing up in your life when you trust God. See, when you start trusting Him, you stop trying to force connections and you start recognizing these divine intersections that you know God set up for you. You you start meeting the right people at the right time, in the right place for the right reason, and and you can tell that it's not random. You, it's it's obvious, right? It's orchestrated on purpose by God. Listen, I can't tell you how many times in my life a conversation, a meeting, an introduction ended up being the very thing that I was looking for that unlocked the next season of my life in my art or in my business. And it wasn't because I was hustling for it, it was because I was walking in alignment with him, paying attention to his voice and following the clues that he left for me along the way. Listen, God knows how to connect you better than you know how to network, trust me, and a lot better than you can strive on your own to make it happen. In fact, sometimes I just sit back and shake my head about how the Lord provided for me and still provides for me through divine appointments. You know, and I was getting my art business started again back in Asheville years ago, and you're just trying to, again, you're just trying to feel out, God, what do you have for me? What's the next step? He brought relationships into my life that were just people that I never should have met. And um, I remember one client in particular, you know, if you'll do a good job for people, right? If you'll treat people right, if you'll do great work and uh, you know, really show up and be a person of your word, God will open doors for you. And um, I had one client I'd done this big fireplace mantelpiece for and uh this monster house. And uh at the end of the project, I ended up doing a couple of things for it. And she said, Man, I just love your work. And she said, You know who else would love your work? My interior designer Ann would love your work. And she said, I want to get you guys together. Would you would you be willing to, you know, come for for brunch when you deliver this next piece and and meet her? And I'm like, Oh, yeah, sure, yeah, great. And so I did, and I went up there, and um, so you know, we met and we're sitting in this beautiful kitchen, you know, having brunch and and all this. And uh my client is kind of just you know, telling my story and introducing me to this lady Ann. And uh Ann says, Well, Matt, she's a real southern lady. I loved it, you know. She said, uh, she said, Matt, she said, I just love your work. I know about what you do. And she said, I just think everybody up here needs to know about it. And I want to be the one to tell them. And I just sat there like, are you kidding me? Like, there's no way that I could have, you know, planned that, right? No way you could have marketed your your way into that. And and where that was was one of the most wealthy areas in the southeast that really became kind of the honey hole of where my work was very highly collected, still is today. And um, very, very wealthy people, you know, one to ten billion dollar mountain homes and these estate properties. I mean, just incredible and uh very, very difficult to get in in the natural, right? And yet through one divine appointment, this lady, one of my clients, introduced me to Ann. Well, listen, Miss Ann, she became like my art mama. I mean, she she was such an incredible blessing in my life. And she loved the Lord and she loved me. And um, she for years, and I don't mean once or twice, I mean for years, she would have me up to her furniture store. She had the big furniture store and interior design firm in this area, and she would have me up there every summer and would put on a two-day show of my work. And y'all, I listen, she not once ever asked me for any commission. I never paid her a fee. Uh, they processed my transactions. I mean, it was an absolute blessing. She referred me, she sold my work in there on a regular basis. I mean, it was a major, major blessing. We did all kinds of projects together. And and did I did I market my way into that? Did I have the right unique selling proposition? And was it was all my Instagram the exact right way? No. Listen to me. I was listening to the voice of the Lord. I was being faithful to what he called me to do. And in a moment, in a moment, the divine strategy of heaven for my life and for my art career came together in a person that God moved on their heart to introduce me to the right person at the right place at the right time, to open doors for provision and opportunity and increase in my life that I could have never, ever, ever planned. And listen, my friends, as I said yes to the Lord in my art back in 2009, uh, maybe you've heard that story. My book, Unlocking the Heart of the Artist, talks about it. I've talked about it a lot here on the channel. Listen, just saying yes to him and keeping an ear to him and being willing to say yes, especially in the areas of provision, especially when it didn't make sense, and seeing God continue to open these doors with divine appointments, I am convinced I don't want to live any other way. And that's what I'm trying to communicate to you today. God has a divine strategy for your art business and for your provision in life that has nothing to do with you striving and struggling and trying to make it on your own. Now, here's where it gets really powerful. The fifth thing that happens when you trust God for provision as an artist is this God begins to show you how to access supernatural provision in ways that don't always make sense to your natural mind. And again, I think this is where faith really starts to come alive in the hearts of artists. Because listen, God is not limited by your current understanding of how things are supposed to work or the money you're supposed to be making. I mean, think about Peter. He and Jesus were just walking along one day, and Peter realizes, oh my God, we we got to pay our taxes. Now, I'm sure that Peter in that moment, right, got that nervous feeling in his gut and started thinking, oh no, what are we gonna do? But listen, that didn't shake Jesus at all. In fact, Jesus tells him to do something that made no sense. He said, He said, Go fishing. I mean, can you imagine what Peter was thinking? Like, Jesus, do you even understand the gravity of this situation? We got to pay our taxes. But in that moment, Peter trusted Jesus and he did what he said. And guess what? Lo and behold, he went and caught a fish, and there in the fish, in his mouth, he found a gold coin enough to pay his taxes and Jesus's. Now, listen, that's not some business strategy you're gonna find on YouTube or some hack from you know an Instagram influencer. It's a picture of God's provision. When God is your source, provision, supernatural provision, can come from anywhere through anything that God chooses to use. And when you and I as artists trust God to do that and stop limiting provision to just the path that we understand, we start living with an open hand and trusting God to bring our provision however he wants to bring it in our life through commissions and sales and partnerships and ideas and opportunities. Sure, some things, you know, expected, some things completely unexpected, but God always connects you with the right thing at the right time. And that leads us to the sixth thing. As God's provision starts to flow, you become a river and not a reservoir. See, when you trust God for your provision, you're you no longer are holding on to things so tight, like you got to hoard it all for yourself because you start realizing, hey, this ain't about me. This is about the Lord. And you begin to live open-handed. You you start sowing and blessing and giving generously, not out of fear, but out of trust, because you start realizing I am not the source. God is my source. And listen, scripture is so clear, he who sows generously will reap generously. And what happens when you do? Well, you become a conduit of blessing and provision to others who are around you. And as you do, guess what? Provision and increase begin to flow, not just to you, but through you. And listen, that's where the real freedom is for us as artists. Now, let me anchor this in scripture in a way that I think is really, really going to encourage you. Again, especially as an artist. In Exodus 36, when we see Bezalel and all the craftsmen who are building the tabernacle of Moses, it says in that section of scripture that the people were bringing offerings for that project day after day, and they brought so much. It says that Bezalel went and complained to Moses and asked him to tell the people to stop. And that Moses had to restrain the people from giving. I mean, think about that. More than enough, a bothersome amount of overabundance for a creative, a project that God had ordained. I mean, I love that. See, listen, my friend, this is the picture of provision, abundant provision for kingdom artists. Not not barely getting by, not constant lack, not constant struggle, but an overflow in alignment with your unique design for your God-given assignment. And listen, that just wasn't for them. That reveals the nature of God. Always good, always giving, always overflowing to you and to me more than we can ever ask or imagine. You know why? Because He really is that good. Now, here's the final thing that I want to leave with you. When you start trusting God for your provision, you stop making decisions out of fear and out of lack and out of pressure, and you start making them in faith. You're no longer asking questions like, what feels the safest? Can I, can I really afford this? You start asking God, what are you saying? Lord, show me the next step of faith. Give me the strength to step out, even though I can't see it right now. And listen, that changes everything because now your life is not being shaped by fear. It's being shaped and led moment by moment with your relationship. With God. And listen, that doesn't mean you have to have the whole plan figured out. Of course not. But it does mean that you just have to take the next step. And that's all you need. Now listen, if this is where you are right now and you're starting to realize, man, I I've been striving. I've been under that pressure. I don't want to keep living that way. I want to start trusting God with my life and my art and especially my financial provision. Then listen, don't let this be just another video that you that you binge watch on YouTube. Let this be a moment, a divine appointment where you actually respond. So listen, I want to invite you to take a few minutes right now. Just ask the Holy Spirit, say, God, where have I been striving instead of trusting you? Where have I been trusting myself for my own provision? And ask him to tell you what he wants to tell you, his promises about your provision as his child. Listen, whatever he shows you, just give him your yes. I promise he will not let you down. And again, you don't have to understand the whole plan. You just have to say yes to that next step because that's where the life is, and that's where supernatural provision begins to flow. And listen, like I mentioned earlier, if you need some help renewing your mind and breaking those old fear-based patterns, like we all have in our life, about money and provision and all the things that have been holding you back in your creative journey with the Lord, I want to encourage you, please check out my foundations course. It's helped thousands of artists just like you step into clarity, confidence, and creative freedom in Christ. And I know it'll do the same for you. The links below and you can check it out. And hey, if this video has encouraged you, like I hope it has, do me a favor like, share, comment, and uh be sure to share it with a friend so that they can hear about this army of artists that God's raising up all over the world. I love you, friend. Be sure to watch this next video. It's gonna be a big, big blessing to you. And remember, till next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.