And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds… – Colossians 3:15, Amplified Bible (AMP)

You are faced with a decision, and you are at a complete loss as to which path to take. You prayed to God for wisdom in the matter, and then you studied the Bible to see what Scripture says. But, the Scripture doesn’t speak specifically to the issue at hand, so you counseled with a few godly people to see how they would apply biblical principles to your dilemma. The folks you talked to all said the same thing, but the path they told you to take just doesn’t feel right. What do you do next to make your decision?

There are many things in life that the Bible speaks clearly on, and it doesn’t take a lot of research to discover which path you ought to take in order to please God. But there are many, many matters we have to decide on in life that aren’t specifically addressed in the Bible, like which job should I take, which ministry do I volunteer to help with, and is this the person the Lord wants me to marry. In such matters we must apply a decision-making procedure, based on biblical principles, in order to choose the right way. Step one is to pray for wisdom. Step two is to search the Scripture for the wisdom we prayed for. Step three is to seek godly counsel from others, and step four is found in Colossians 3:15: watch out for the peace (soul harmony) that comes from Christ’s direction in the matter.

When unclear which path to take, imagine in your mind’s eye that you are actively engaging in each of the possible ways you could go. For whichever path God wants you to take, He will give you a heart peace – a glorious calm that comes with soul harmony – as you imagine taking the path of His choice. As you imagine the other paths, that heart peace will be noticeably absent, and instead of peace you will detect anxiety in your heart. Your body will physically manifest whatever symptoms of stress that it normally exhibits when you are anxious (mine are usually a racing heart and/or constricting throat muscles), and through those triggers you will know that God is saying “no” to those paths.

Oftentimes the peace of God points you in a direction that makes absolutely no sense to you (or anyone else), but take the path anyway. God has all of the facts, and the reason you are confused is because you don’t. At some future point, God will likely reveal to you what you couldn’t see before, and the path He gave you will make perfect sense. Until then, simply trust. If you do, His heart peace will be with you all along the way, but if you reject His path in order to walk the one that makes sense to your human reason, then heart peace will never be yours until you change course and do what God told you to do in the first place.

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