Here you will find a small guide how you can ask God for advice and how you can get or interpret an answer. We have divided the individual steps in such a way that you can make these sometime simply from the head. Please also pay attention to the hints at the end.
Table of Contents
Preparation
In principle, there is no condition that you have to fulfill in order to ask God for advice. Every person, thanks to Jesus Christ, can talk to God freely and without fear. However, if you are not yet a Christian, you should consider becoming one. In the Bible we find indications that they are favored by God on some issues.
Step 1: Consider exactly what you need advice on
In the first step, it has proven to be useful to think about what you need advice on. In doing so, you should be as specific as possible and consider a precise question, the more specific this question is, the more likely you are to receive perfect advice from God.
If you ask a “coarser” question, you will not be able to see the answer from God exactly. However, one who needs the advice on a subject that he or she has accurately staked out beforehand is more likely to be able to discern the answer from God.
Example: don’t say “God I need your advice,” but “God, should I do A or B.”
Step 2: Check the desired advice for sins
Step 2 is to help God really give advice. Those who seek advice on how best to commit a sin will get no answer or no satisfactory answer from God.
Of course, God does not expect us to always know exactly when we are or are not committing a sin. Sometimes we can’t even see far into the future accurately to be able to make an appropriate statement (e.g., when choosing a field of study)
Just make sure that the advice does not revolve around: hurting other people, denying God, clearly breaking charity, or hurting yourself in any way.
Step 3: Ask God for advice through prayer
If you can’t find sin in asking for advice, then you can pray to God. (You can even if it is sinful… but you probably won’t like the answer).
Withdraw and make sure you are alone for a while and not disturbed. This could be in the shower or walking in the woods, for example. It doesn’t have to be a church or anything like that – God will hear you in any place.
If you don’t dare to pray alone, you can also bring in another person. This does not necessarily strengthen the prayer, but it can be a personal strengthening to come before God with an important issue.
Just speak out what you have formulated in step 1. You can speak as freely as you like. You could also use one of the following sentence starters:
- “Hello God, I need your advice about…”
- “Dear God, please help me make a decision about…”
- “Thank you Jesus for helping me. I need your advice on…”
- At the end of the prayer, thank God for this and ask Him to give you a clear answer.
Step 4: Wait for the answer
Now comes the mean part: wait for the answer from God. Usually this answer is clear – if you recognize and accept it. Exactly what that answer looks like, of course, depends on the advice you ask for and your openness.
More hints for asking God for advice
This article may seem that if you want to ask God for advice, you have to go through a complicated procedure and that is the only way to get an answer from God. The truth is: anyone can pray to God and ask Him for advice as they wish. The instructions in this article are meant to be a kind of guide for the one who is afraid to ask God for advice or is simply at the beginning of his relationship with God. Those who wish to use their own formulations can, of course, do so. Whether God answers or not does not depend on the exact wording.
