English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese When the way is unclear: “Lord, I do not know which way to go. Show me the next right step, give me the sense to see it and the courage to take it, and keep me close to you whatever I choose. Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer has an older one, “For Guidance.”
The Book of Common Prayer’s prayer for guidance
The Episcopal Church’s 1928 prayer book prints this among its family prayers. Its opening borrows from two psalms: “The meek will he guide in judgment” (Psalm 25:9) and “in thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9).
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly; Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of Wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Family Prayer, “For Guidance,” p. 595
Prayers for a decision, a calling or a fresh start
Before a big decision
Lord, I have to decide about [the job, the move, the marriage], and I keep changing my mind. You promised wisdom to anyone who asks: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not” (James 1:5). I am asking. Show me what I am not seeing, clear away my fear and my wishful thinking, and give me peace with the choice once it is made. Amen.
When you have lost your way in life
Lord, I have drifted so far that I no longer know how I got here. “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant” (Psalm 119:176). Find me, turn me around, and set my feet on the right road again, one day at a time. Amen.
For a purpose and a calling
God, you made me and you know what I am for. Show me the gifts you gave me and where they are needed. Keep me from waiting for a grand plan while I neglect the work in front of me, and teach me to do it “heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). Amen.
About work and career
Lord, I do not know whether to stay in this job or leave it. Open the door you want me to walk through and close the ones that would harm me or my family. Send me honest advice from people who know me, and help me weigh money, family and faith in the right order. Amen.
About a relationship
Father, I do not know whether this relationship is right. Show me the truth about it, and about myself. Give me the courage to commit if it is good and the strength to end it kindly if it is not. Amen.
While you wait for an answer
Lord, I have prayed, and nothing has changed yet. Teach me to wait without panic and without running ahead of you. “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart” (Psalm 27:14). Amen.
When the way is clear but you are afraid
God, I think I know what you want me to do, and I am afraid to do it. You told Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9). Say it to me now, and help me take the first step. Amen.
When your plans have fallen apart
Lord, I had my life mapped out, and it has not gone the way I planned. “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). I give you my plans. Keep what is good in them, change what is not, and help me follow where you lead. Amen.
At a new beginning
Lord, everything is new: the city, the work, the people. You promised, “I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). Make a way for me here, and send me friends who will point me to you. Amen.
At the start of the day
Lord, before this day begins, I give it to you. Guide the small choices as well as the large ones: what I say, how I spend the hours, whom I stop to help. Where I go wrong, turn me back quickly. Amen.
Older prayers for direction
“Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings”
Anglican and Catholic prayer books carry two English versions of the same Latin prayer, Actiones nostras. William Palmer’s Origines Liturgicae (1832) prints the Anglican form beside the Latin, and the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers gives the Latin with its own translation in the Litany of the Saints. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer version reads:
Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer (1928), Prayers, Collects, p. 49
The Catholic version is shorter:
Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy inspiration, and further them with Thy continual help; that every prayer and work of ours may always begin from Thee, and through Thee be brought to an end.
A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity (1888), The Litany of the Saints, p. 269
Psalm 143 in the Orthodox evening service
Orthodox Christians hear Psalm 143 in the Office of Grand Compline, the late evening service. The King James Version gives its eighth verse as “cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.” The Orthodox service book in Isabel Hapgood’s translation of 1906 renders the verses this way:
O let me hear thy loving-kindness betimes in the morning; for in thee is my trust: show thou me the way that I should walk in; for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies; for I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee; for thou art my God: let thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness.
Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church (1906), The Office of Grand Compline, p. 159
A Catholic morning prayer to the guardian angel
Catholics ask their guardian angel to pray for them and guide them. The 1888 Manual of Prayers prints this rhyme among its morning prayers. Protestants generally do not pray to angels.
Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity (1888), Morning Prayers, p. 54
How Christians look for God’s direction
Scripture is the first place Christians look. Proverbs promises, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6), and the psalmist calls God’s word “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). Many Bible verses about guidance are themselves prayers, such as “Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths” (Psalm 25:4).
Advice from other people is the second. “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established” (Proverbs 15:22). When the early church had to decide whether Gentile converts must keep the law of Moses, the apostles and elders met, and “there had been much disputing” before they wrote, “it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us” (Acts 15:7, 28). Many Christians take a large decision to a pastor, a priest or an older believer they trust, and prayers for discernment ask for help in weighing what they hear.
Most decisions are not spelled out anywhere in Scripture, such as which job to take or which city to live in. Christians who ask what the will of God is in such cases usually start from what Scripture does say plainly, as in Micah: “what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8).
Should you ask God for a sign?
Scripture records people who did. Gideon laid a fleece on the floor and asked God to wet it with dew and leave the ground dry, then asked for the reverse, and both were granted (Judges 6:36–40). Before choosing a replacement for Judas, the apostles prayed, “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,” and cast lots, which fell on Matthias (Acts 1:24–26).
Scripture also records a refusal. When scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, he answered, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas” (Matthew 12:38–39). Christians differ on “putting out a fleece” today. Some treat Gideon as an example to follow; others point out that Gideon had already been told what God wanted, since he asked “as thou hast said” (Judges 6:36).
Is it Christian to pray to spirit guides?
The Bible forbids it. The law of Moses bans anyone “that useth divination” or is “a consulter with familiar spirits” (Deuteronomy 18:10–11). Christian prayers for guidance are addressed to God. Catholic and Orthodox Christians also ask the saints and angels to pray for them.
