Prayers For Guidance
We have already seen that prayers of adoration and prayers of thanksgiving are often mistaken for being the same. This holds true with prayers for wisdom and prayers for guidance. Last week we saw Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, not as the world would see it, but true wisdom in the knowledge of the Lord and what He would have Solomon do. This week we are going to review an example of a prayer for guidance. Looking for guidance is a natural experience, we often want someone to advise us on choices we have to make or what we should be doing. However, to often Christians look to books, scholars, pastors, or friends for guidance. While this is not wrong, many forget to ask God for His guidance. They place their faith in fallen man verses the infallible God. This is why prayers for guidance are so important, they allow us to focus on who truly has authority in any given situation for His advice. Psalm 25 is a great example of a prayer for guidance.
“To You, Lord, I lift up my soul. 2 My God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies rejoice over me. 3 Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed. 4 Make me know Your ways, Lord; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day. 6 Remember, Lord, Your compassion and Your faithfulness, For they have been from of old. 7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoings; Remember me according to Your faithfulness, For Your goodness’ sake, Lord. 8 The Lord is good and upright; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way. 10 All the paths of the Lord are faithfulness and truth To those who comply with His covenant and His testimonies. 11 For the sake of Your name, Lord, Forgive my wrongdoing, for it is great.12 Who is the person who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. 13 His soul will dwell in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. 15 My eyes are continually toward the Lord, For He will rescue my feet from the net. 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. 18 Look at my misery and my trouble,And forgive all my sins. 19 Look at my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred.20 Guard my soul and save me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You. 21 Let integrity and uprightness protect me, For I wait for You. 22 Redeem Israel, God, From all his distress.”
A prayer for guidance is asking God to show us His will and what He would have us do in the present moment. This is exactly what David, the author of this psalm, is doing here. He begins the prayer with phrases that show that he trusts God and has faith in Him. David also asks that while he may be surrounded by enemies, that he would not be ashamed and reminds God of His promise that those who wait on Him will not be ashamed.
David then asks God to teach Him. This is where he is asking God for guidance, too often we read God’s Word just to read it. We do not ask for Him to teach us and show us the deeper meanings to His Word. Because of this, the Bible can often be seen as confusing, which then makes it more difficult to read, and results in a lack of knowledge of the Word; which leads to stumbling in our walk with God. We should be praying for God to teach us what His Word means, especially as the end times grows closer. David is asking here that God would make God’s ways known to him. David did not have the completed Bible before him, we do but this does not mean that we have full knowledge of God’s ways. God’s ways are different from ours, and it is only through asking Him for guidance will we even remotely understand them. ““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.
David also asks that God lead him in His ways. We should not only ask for God’s guidance when it comes to studying His Word, but also that God lead us in His way and in His will. To be taught and lead show a spirit of humbleness. We place ourselves under the authority of God and accept that His will is greater. This means that sometimes what we are asking for is not what we will receive because it is not in God’s will. When those days happen, we need to be like David who states “For You I wait all the day” Psalm 25:5b. We need to wait upon the Lord and place our faith in His promises, just as David did by asking God to remember His promises of compassion and lovingkindness. We saw last week that God will not withhold good things from those who are following Him, this includes His guidance; a fact that David makes clear in the next passage of his prayer.
David states that “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.” Psalm 25:8-10 because God is good and upright, He will instruct the sinners in the way. Sometimes this means that His instruction is found in discipline, “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” Proverbs 3:11-12. Just because we may be disciplined by God does not mean that we cannot receive His guidance, we simply need to humble ourselves before Him and allow Him to lead us on the path that He has directed for us. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9.
David then shows that for those who fear the Lord, God will guide them in the way that they should go. We saw last week that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverb 9:10). When we humble ourselves and ask God for His guidance, we not only receive it but also wisdom like we discussed last week. This is why prayers for wisdom and prayers for guidance go hand in hand. We need to pray that we can see the way God is guiding us and pray that we have the knowledge to follow His will. When we pray for both wisdom and guidance we will be able to keep our eyes focused on the Lord and know that “He will pluck my feet out of the net” Psalm 25:15b. When we are focused on God and following His will, God will remove us from temptations to stray from Him and we will not be trapped in sin.
In verses 16-22, we come to a deciding factor that many fail to recognize about the characteristics of a prayer asking for guidance. David is detailing his current situation and the concerns that he has to the Lord. As we have stated, prayers of wisdom and prayers of guidance at times can be mistaken for each other. However, they do have a key difference when compared. Prayers of wisdom are generally more passive and regard broader strokes of one’s life, while prayers of guidance are generally more active in the moment and specific to the need of the believer to the all knowing God. In Psalm 25, we see David detailing how he sees his situation to God. One might argue that this is not needed because God is all knowing, yet as an all loving God and a good Heavenly Father He cares for us and wants us to tell Him. God is willing to eagerly listen. God has created us in such a way that by verbalizing the details of our situation to Him, we can at times examine our situation and possibly see the correct choice that God has preordained for us.
Finally, we need to remember that David is approaching God with a spirit of humility and awe. David is asking God to be gracious to him and help him with the enemies around him. Today we are surrounded by an army that hates us just as David was. However, our enemies are not only of flesh and blood, “12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12. Part of our prayers for guidance is to ask God to guard us in the face of our enemies. We need to remember that we can find refuge in God.
Seek the truth and encourage one another,
Alex