God’s Personal Guidance

 “There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the LORD’s counsel that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21).

Most of us have a lot of things that need to get done each day. Some are less important than others, but they all have a bearing on our quality of life. However some of those are of such importance that they can greatly impact our budget and career, our marriage and family, or even our life itself. We need a higher wisdom to guide us through the difficulties that life can sometimes be.

There are two primary ways to receive this help from God.

Ask, Seek, Knock

The first is by going to Him daily and praying to Him to guide you in all your plans for that day.

Jesus admonished His disciples to tap into that source. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11).

What a great source of help we have available to us, and all we have to do is ask! “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

As We Pray

As we go to God often in prayer, seeking His guidance, we’ll find that God will help us as we meditate on what course of action to take in those things we must address in life. He inspires Believers by and through the power of His Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 1:7). It will work with us through our thoughts and conscience.

The Holy Spirit was available to help the men who followed Jesus in His earthly ministry, and later it became an indwelling spirit, as it can for us upon repentance and baptism. Jesus promised them, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, [it] will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).

If we sincerely seek His help and guidance daily in prayer, He will provide that guidance more abundantly than we can imagine.

More and more as we study and meditate on questions and decisions, the answers will come to us even in the night as we lie in bed. As David wrote, “I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons” (Psalm 16:7).

If we sincerely seek His help and guidance daily in prayer, He will provide that guidance more abundantly than we can imagine: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).