Protecting the Heart 

The avenues to our souls are indispensable. Our sight, sound, taste, speech, and touch are these avenues. Every minute we are awake, external data from our society clamors for permission to integrate its ideologies with ours on a conscious and subconscious level. Whether they are permitted or intrusive, the thoughts we entertain mold the character of our souls. What we listen to becomes the music of the soul. What we watch becomes the internal perspective lenses of the soul. What we taste becomes the appetite of the soul. How we talk becomes a reflection of the heart's disposition. What we touch creates familiarity and a sensational connection. These avenues can change who we are. It is no wonder God commands us to, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it" (Proverbs 4:23), and you know that "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Guard your heart. The depth of this command has salvific implications. Why? Because the Great Controversy is over our hearts and the avenues that lead to it. 

The traffic to our hearts ought to be judicially examined and challenged. If it is not true, mobile, right, pure, lovely, admirable, or excellent of praise, we need to throw it out of our lives. But how do we know what is true and excellent of praise? Aren't these definitions, to a certain degree, subjective? The only way to live a life statured by truth is to have a relationship with the truth. Jesus boldly proclaimed, "I am the truth." If we let Jesus become the Lord of our hearts, each thought and impulse that comes through the avenues of sight, sound, taste, speech, come under the speculation and sovereignty of Christ—for the truth will set you free from the entanglements of the world and sin. The closer we get to Jesus, and the more we make room in hearts to love Jesus, the less room there is for the world's garbage.