FOCUS ON EVERYTHING LOVELY AND TRUE WITH THE

HIDDEN IN MY HEART SCRIPTURE MUSIC COLLECTION

We face many challenges when it comes to pursuing a healthy mindset. Habitual thought patterns, fear, and noise from media and society can overwhelm our minds. Yet God gives us what we need to rein in wandering thoughts and bring them under the canopy of His goodness. Here are three ways to focus on everything lovely and true.

3 Ways to Focus on Everything Lovely and True

1. Make Everything Lovely and True Your Background Music

God created music to benefit our minds, bodies, and spirits. Music can improve memory, reduce stress, and increase focus. Beautiful, peaceful melodies carrying us through a day can lift our mood and position us to hear from God, especially when the refrains carry the power of His Word. 

Music inspired by Scripture can enhance memory, helping us regularly recall God’s truth and promises. Stress dissipates as we allow the choruses to guide our thoughts to everything lovely and true. God’s Word illuminates the path before us, causing distractions to fade into obscurity and heightening our focus as we follow His lead through our days.

“Your Word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105

Listen to Hidden In My Heart from Hidden In My Heart, Volume I

2. Engage With Everything Lovely and True in Creation

Along with His Word, God has given us incredible beauty throughout His created world to help train our thoughts in healthful habits. When fear or overwhelm casts a shadow in our minds, we can step outside and engage our senses in nature. We can benefit from God’s life-giving designs as we breathe fresh air, listen to birds sing, and feel the sun’s warmth.

Something powerful occurs when we remove ourselves from our regular environment and surround ourselves with God’s creation. Our gaze lifts from what is before us to a broad and beautiful world, and we remember how God cares for His creation. The next time you struggle to control your thoughts or feel unfocused, walk in a natural area. Feel the grass, listen to the birds’ melodies, dip your toes in a river or lake, and watch tree branches dance in the breeze. Allow God’s creativity to draw your attention toward everything lovely and true.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

Listen to Think On These Things from Hidden In My Heart, Volume IV

3. Renew Your Mind With Everything Lovely and True in Creation

1 Peter 2:9 says God has “called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” This freedom is true concerning our eternal salvation when we follow Jesus. It also extends to our thought patterns. God calls us out of the shadows of distressed thinking and into the light of a mindset permeated by His goodness. Scriptures call this “renewing our minds,” as Romans 12:2 instructs, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God restores our minds as we cooperate with Him by surrounding ourselves with everything lovely and true. We can begin by identifying wayward thoughts that are not from Him. Have you allowed any lies from the enemy to shape your thoughts? Are there fearful notions that predominate your attention? Are there hurtful memories that quickly derail your days? Hand them all to Jesus. Write them in a notebook with a prayer of surrender. Once you have identified those thoughts, you can recognize them surfacing and immediately trade them for truth. Renew your mind with these lovely and true promises from Scripture:

You are loved: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9

You are set free: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” Colossians 1:13

God gives you a sound mind: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Listen to Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled from Hidden In My Heart, Volume III

Remember that God is on your side as you practice redirecting your thoughts away from distraction or fear and toward His truth and promises.  The One who rescued you is dispelling shadows and chasing away the darkness with the light of His goodness and grace. Experience His freedom as you meditate on everything lovely and true.

Whatever is true, whatever is noble

Think on these things

Whatever is just, whatever is pure

Think on these things

Whatever is lovely, deserving of honor and praise

All that has virtue, that which is worthy

Turn your thoughts to think on these things

Listen to Think On These Things from Hidden In My Heart, Volume IV

FOCUS ON EVERYTHING LOVELY AND TRUE WITH THE

HIDDEN IN MY HEART SCRIPTURE MUSIC COLLECTION