Focus your Mind on Truth, Decrease Anxiety, & Find God’s Peace
What are you setting your mind on today, friends? Anxious thoughts, busy thoughts, worried thoughts, difficult relationship thoughts, fearful thoughts, harmful thoughts, resentful thoughts, angry thoughts, sad thoughts? The list can go on and on. But what does scripture call us to think on, to set our minds on, to focus on? Let’s look at Philippians 4 to go deeper.
Philippians 4:4–8 (ESV): Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
We are called to rejoice in the Lord. To not be anxious… about anything. I don’t know about you, but that is extremely hard to do on our own. To not worry or be anxious about anything. If we begin to focus our mind on God and what He’s calling us to focus on, it begins to get easier. And the peace of God comes over us and helps us.
We are called to think about and focus on whatever is TRUE, HONORABLE, JUST, PURE, LOVELY, COMMENDABLE, anything WORTHY of PRAISE or to do with EXCELLENCE.
For me, I’ll have to pause and actually take some time to identify what is in fact true, honorable, just, pure, excellent, lovely, commendable, and worthy of praise in my life. To slow my busy life down…
To actually sit and think and consider what is good.
What is the good in my life right now?
And in that, it will begin to be easy to rejoice and have thanksgiving bubble up within me. It won’t be so hard to push anxiety down because there will be so much good around me I am focused on that the worries and anxieties will decrease in importance in my eyes.
I pray the same is true for you friend today. What do you need to stop and consider in your own life that is worthy of praise? Pure? Lovely? True? How are you richly blessed? Allow the praise and rejoicing to bubble out and overflow to the Lord for His goodness in your life. Write them down as you consider each one. Be blessed today friends and find peace from God.