The Thriving Christian Artist - The Fight Every Artist Must Face

There's one fight that every artist will fight, not just once in a while, but every day, especially those who see their creativity as a calling from God.

And listen, it doesn't matter how talented you are, it doesn't matter how mature you are, how long you've loved Jesus, how long you've been making art, how successful you've been as an artist.

Listen, if you don't learn how to win this fight, your dreams will actually get stalled.

Your confidence will start eroding and your creative calling will always seem out of reach.

So in today's video, I'm exposing this fight. I'm going to show you where it started and give you one simple tool that helps you win every time.

And hey, if you're new here, I'm mad. And every week here on the channel, I'm helping artists just like you gain clarity, confidence, and freedom in Christ.

Listen, I'd love it if you go ahead and subscribe. Be sure to ring the bell so you never miss any of the great content that I'm producing every week.

And also, let me know in the comments, what thought do you fight the most as an artist? And let's jump in.

Okay, so what is this fight that every artist faces every day? Well, I've come to learn it's the fight to believe.

To believe that God actually created you to be creative, to be an artist, to believe who God says you are in Christ, to believe that he's already made you to be enough, to believe that his plans for you and his purposes for you are good, that nothing can separate you from his love, to believe that you're not disqualified by bad.

But listen, here's what most artists don't realize. You think, well, maybe I have a fight every now and then or maybe I'll get through this one day.

But listen, the fight never goes away. In other words, you don't graduate from it just because you've been a believer for a long time.

But as you mature, you gain better tools. But listen, the battle is just is real.

See, there've been so many seasons in my life, even while, you know, teaching and selling art and doing great as an artist where I would lie awake at night or even during the day in my studio, just think, did I miss it?

Or do I really have what it takes for me to do what you've called me to do? Or will these temptations or will this overwhelming thoughts of not enough will it ever stop?

Listen, that wasn't because I didn't love God. It was because even though doubt is invisible, it can be really, really loud and really penetrate our heart.

I mean, come on, you know this. We artists feel everything by design, right? But that doesn't mean, you know, we're crazy or we're weak just because we feel things deeply.

It means that we're human. It means that we're responding in a way that God created us, but we have to learn to mature in that.

I mean, let's go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis. You know, the first temptation that Adam and Eve experienced in the garden was not about eating an apple necessarily, right?

It was about belief. It was about asking them, did God really say that kind of sowing a little bit of doubt?

It really attacked who God was and who Adam and Eve were with him.

And listen, every temptation since then, the enemy throws out at you and me, it follows that same pattern.

Is God really who he says he is? Is he really going to do what he promised? Are you really enough? Did he really call you to do that?

It's just sowing doubt after doubt after doubt.

Listen, if you struggle with that in your life, like I've struggled with it, let me know in the comments because I think it'll start to encourage you that you're not alone.

And listen, it's recognizing that pattern and learning how to fight against it. That's how you start winning.

Now, see, here's the, here's the interesting and kind of subtle part that seems invisible sometimes.

See, the enemy just doesn't tempt you to believe this big old fat lie, this obvious, right?

He tempts you to fix that your feelings on things like insecurity or worse yet tries to get you to fix that insecurity in ways that are not in agreement with God's purposes and plans for your life.

Things like striving or speeding up the process or overworking or benficionism or jealousy and comparison or controlling or hiding.

Listen, no matter what form any of that takes, it's all at the end of the day. It's still unbelief. It's still trying to solve spiritually what can only be settled with God relationally.

So how do we win this fight as artists? Well, I've learned over all these years, the only antidote is agreement agreement with God, agreement with His Word, agreement with your identity in Christ.

You know why? Because agreement is a spiritual principle. It opens the door for the power of God to work in your life.

See, this is why renewing your mind is not something this optional or something just a good idea for artists who love Jesus.

Remember, the Bible says in Romans 12, too, that lasting transformation only comes, only comes through the renewing of your mind, not by trying harder or feeling bad about it or trying to feel more spiritual or pretending that you don't struggle or just ignoring the problem.

But no, cooperating with the Holy Spirit day by day, moment by moment to renew your mind according to God's Word.

See, renewing your mind means building your inner man and it's training you to recognize these lies and these fights when they show up.

And listen, this is huge. The struggle that you're feeling because this is another accusation the enemy wants to get you to try to believe.

The struggle that you're feeling is not proof that you're weak. It's actually proof that you're moving forward.

The struggle says that, hey, you're doing something right. You're on the enemy's radar. You're starting to make progress.

And that is the specific reason why he's attacking your mind the way he does.

Remember, scripture says that the enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion. He's roaring with intimidation.

He's roaring to get you to rush the process. He's roaring to pressure you into making quick decisions that have long-term consequences in your life.

Why does he do that? Well, listen, he does that again because the path you're on is the path that God has for you and he wants to do everything he can to stop that.

So I want to give you one tool today, a powerful tool that you can start using right now that I guarantee you and God's Word guarantees you will help you win every time.

And there's this idea and second Corinthians 10.5 that says take every thought captive.

That means when a dominating thought like this comes in like I'm not good enough or I'll never break through.

I'm too old, I'm too late or God's disappointed in me or I'll never get to this level or whatever it is.

You have to learn in that moment. You have to choose to stop right then not to react but to take a deep breath and take that thought and examine it through the lens of God's Word.

Just like a pair of glasses, you look through God's Word, not not your emotions, not your past, not your trauma, not feelings of unworthiness or even what other people have said about you, but the Word of God.

And listen, when you do that in that moment, the only question you got to ask is is this thought this thing that the enemy is trying to barrage me with?

Is this what God's Word says about me? Is it really true in light of God's Word?

Nine times out of ten, probably ten times out of ten. The answer is no.

And listen, if it is no, just reject that thing.

Then do what Jesus did in the wilderness.

Remember when Satan was tempting him, you know, all that time in the wilderness?

If you're the son of God, if you're really this, if you can do that.

In other words, what? He was trying to get Jesus to come into agreement with doubt about his identity.

But what did Jesus do? Jesus responded not with feelings, but with the Word of God.

He didn't respond emotionally or with panic. He just boldly declared the truth of God's Word.

Listen, the Word of God, the Bible says, is our offensive weapon.

And when you expose the lie with the truth, it instantly loses power.

And when you declare God's truth as your truth, you're not just winning in that moment.

You're starting to strengthen yourself and encourage yourself in the Lord internally for the next fight

that absolutely will come your way. And listen, my friend, that is how maturity actually grows inside of you.

Now listen, I wish that the Bible said that that just happened once,

but it didn't even happen once to Jesus, right?

In fact, in that very story, in the wilderness, it happened two more times

with temptations that were bigger and worse than the last ones.

In that story, though, we can take heart because Jesus persevered and he actually shut down the enemy in his tracks.

Listen, that's what the Bible teaches, right? Resist the devil and he will flee.

And resisting is not just hoping that this would go away.

Resisting, again, is using the Word of God as an offensive weapon,

standing up for yourself in the power of the Holy Spirit and declaring in that moment

in the places you feel most weak, who you are in Christ.

That is the only thing that will win the fight every time.

This is really where most Christians, and especially artists,

quietly lose the fight every day. They love God, they go to church, they've got dreams,

but they never build a disciplined inner life of agreement with the Word of God.

And so, unfortunately, they end up living overwhelmed and frustrated and defeated

in this cycle of over and over and over going through the same things.

They have this great vision and dreams of what they want God to do in their life,

but they never, ever are able to step into it.

Listen, we're wired as artists to feel and imagine and see incredible things,

but if we don't guard our thought life, we can create catastrophic narratives internally.

Just as easily as we can create beautiful art and just as easily as we can imagine

the good things that God has for us.

Listen, I've been walking this thing for a lot of years

and I've been mentoring thousands of artists for almost two decades.

And over all that time, and seeing a lot of different journeys,

I've learned this is usually not something that you can just freestyle.

You can't just wake up one day and say, well, I'm just going to think better thoughts today.

You know, I just need to be positive.

I mean, that was my story for years.

I loved Jesus, I knew Scripture, I was in church, but I did not know

how to systematically renew my mind in a way that was simple and sustainable

and replicable in real life in the situations that I was going through.

But listen, what I learned how to do that based on what I'm teaching you right here today,

everything changed.

I stopped fighting randomly and I started winning every battle intentionally.

Now listen, if you want to start winning this fight in your mind every day,

I want to let you know I've got a way to help you.

It's called the Creative Thrive Foundation's course and it's not just,

it's not more information.

It's a simple pathway that I've developed to help artists just like you renew their mind,

heal what's shaping your thinking and actually build your creative life on the truth

instead of all those feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.

The link for the foundation's course is below and it'd be my privilege to walk you through that.

And hey, listen, if today's message is really resonating with you and you know,

hey, this is on God's radar for me, let me know in the comments.

I truly, I read every comment and I would love to hear how this channel

and messages like this are encouraging you to be all that God's called you to be

as an artist in his kingdom.

Now next I want to encourage you to watch this next video.

It's what I call the five R method for renewing your mind.

It's where I go even deeper into this process of renewing your mind.

So again, you can start winning the fight inside your mind every day.

Listen, I love you my friend.

Be sure to hit the subscribe button.

Be sure to leave me a comment.

Watch this next video and let's keep on helping you be everything that God's called you to be.

God's called you to be as an artist in his kingdom.

Bye.