“How do I really know if God wants me to be an artist?” I love this question because a lot of artists of faith have struggled with it over the years. I know I did!  

If you can relate, I want you to know that I think you’re on the right path, because God loves that you are even asking these deep questions in the first place! His word tells us in Proverbs 25:2 that “it’s the glory of God to conceal a matter, it's the glory of kings to search it out.” In other words, as we're on this journey of exploring life with the Lord, as we lean into this adventure with Him, He progressively reveals His plans for our life.

Your Uniqueness as a Christian Artist

First, realize that God created you uniquely to release and reveal His light, glory, and love through the use and expression of the gifts, talents, and desires He placed within you. God, the Creator of the Universe, invested in you even before you were born. How exciting!

Into your life, God sowed His passions, love, and desires in just the right measure to make the best use of the skills, talents, and abilities He blessed you with.  Now somewhere along the way, your experiences began to trigger a passion and a proclivity for creating.

In those early moments of expressing your latent talents, God began to direct the steps of your journey, leaving you clues along the way in the form of opportunities, desires, and yearnings to create.

Your Journey of Exploration

Take a look at your journey up to this point, especially concerning exploring and using your creative talents. Have you ever stood back to look at a piece you’ve just created and felt a flood of pride and joy?  Does creating art leave you feeling deeply connected, both to God and also to something much bigger than yourself?  What happens if you try to stifle your creativity? Do you feel empty, like something important is missing in your life? If you can relate to any of this, it’s a good indicator that God just might want you to be an artist. 

God has been giving you the opportunity and the authority to explore and choose your direction over the course of your whole life.  The joy within you when you create—and the emptiness when you don’t—confirms His blessing on your artistry. After all, James 1:17 says, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.” 

God confirms His direction and plans with favor, opportunity, blessing, and provision. Look back at your artistic journey and think about those chance encounters, those divine appointments, in your life that opened your eyes to the possibility and viability of being an artist. Again, as you’ve followed God’s “breadcrumbs”—those directional clues along your path—God has been using those “chance encounters,” encouraging words, bursts of passion, and artistic clarity to confirm the plans He has had for you all along.

God Is for You as a Christian Artist!

God wants you to step into your design even more than you want to! God's not trying to hide His plans from you, and you're not stuck and alone trying to make something happen. Rather, this journey of life is about aligning yourself with who God has made you to be. And as you do that, He opens the doors of His presence and fulfillment in your life so that you can be the person that God created you to be.

Embrace the adventure with all the passion you can muster. Start walking down that road, looking for those design clues along the way. Pay attention to the feeling of peace and fulfillment when expressing your creativity.  Listen for those comments from others that say, "Wow, you are talented at this," or, "God's using you in this area." As you do this, God will begin to bring confirmation and confidence to know for sure that, yes, God really does want you to be an artist.  

This article was originally published by Matt Tommey in 2020 and is adapted with his permission from https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/. Matt Tommey is an artist, internationally-known Christian speaker, and the author of 7 books who is passionate about helping artists thrive spiritually, artistically and in business. He is a mentor to artists around the world through his Created to Thrive Artist Mentoring Program and also hosts The Thriving Christian Artist Podcast. Find more resources from Matt at https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/.