We had heard in the context of a faith course that one can ask God for concrete answers to concrete questions if one is united with him in prayer. However, God will only give an answer if one does not experiment out of curiosity, but asks for an answer from him out of an honest heart. To do this, one should open the Bible and put one's finger on any passage without looking. There you would read the answer to the question. We thought this was crazy, but had to admit that all the people who told us about it were deeply trusting. However, we had the impression that this faith practice was not something that could be considered for us.

When we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, we made a pilgrimage of thanksgiving on foot to a distant Marian shrine, to Mariazell. We were on the road with backpacks for 10 days. Our three children were well looked after during this time. We had a lot of time to pray while walking. During this time we also had the idea to pray for a particular problem and to ask God for his help. Maybe he would also give us an answer on how to solve the problem. There was a person in our environment whose behaviour was very stressful for me (Barbara) and I did not know how to deal with it.

After we had prayed a rosary, Wolfgang took our Bible that we had brought with us and did as we had heard at the faith course. I suspected we would get such a passage as, "Love your enemies" or "you shall not forgive seven times, but seventy-seven times."

But what Wolfgang came up with was the exact opposite of that: Matthew 10:34: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but the sword."  We were frustrated. We could not do anything with this passage and we had the impression that either the narratives were not true, according to which God would lead specifically, or that God was not interested in giving us a reasonable answer. Moreover, this passage did not seem to fit the message of Jesus, who had spoken so often about peace and reconciliation.

The next day, after we had prayed together, I took the Bible. Perhaps I would receive a passage from God that could help me. If not, we would stop these attempts to ask God for an answer. 

I did the same as Wolfgang, opened the Bible with my eyes closed, held my finger on any passage and looked to see what would be there to read. It took our breath away. I had received an analogous passage from another evangelist, Luke 12:51! It reads: "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, not peace, but division." We were speechless. We had received the same answer in different places. This could not possibly be a coincidence. We read the whole text, then the scales fell from our eyes. Jesus had spoken about how not all people would follow him and that would lead to divisions among people. These divisions would even occur within families because some would profess Jesus but others would oppose Jesus.

We suddenly had an answer with this passage that was able to solve my problem! I have a strong need for harmony and could not deal well with tensions created by other people. I could now accept after this Bible passage that in some cases it is not possible to create harmony among people. It would require one of the people concerned to give up his or her position completely. If one wants to walk the path of faith, this is a condition that is out of the question. Since that moment, I could bear the tensions with this other person without further problems, I could also pray for him. This led to an inner peace for me. This problem that had been smouldering for a long time was solved.

This was an amazing learning process for us. This not only concerned the fact that God would communicate something so concrete and helpful at our request at all, but also that he obviously has no problem saying something twice if you didn't understand it the first time. The decisive thing seems to be to remain united with him in prayer. We were to experience this one more time during this pilgrimage.

On the way home, we had to wait a long time for the train at a station. We wanted to do this in the inn on the station grounds and also have something to eat there. The pub was very smoky, but I (Wolfgang) found an adjoining room where there was no smoking. We wanted to sit down there. But the waiter didn't allow it, saying that this room was reserved for a closed party. We therefore had to be content with the smoky room and ate our meal there.

A short time later, an elegant couple entered the restaurant. The man was also bothered by the heavy smoke, he asked the waiter for a smoke-free room and was readily led to where we had recently been sent out. Of course, after walking for 10 days, we didn't look as neat as this elegant couple, but I was very annoyed by this unequal treatment. I decided to make my displeasure clearly known to the waiter.

Barbara noticed this and tried to calm me down. She said it would be better if I prayed an "Our Father" for the waiter than to get angry with him. I did not like this remark at all and I could not be dissuaded from giving the waiter my clear opinion. I had unloaded my resentment. But it was not likely that the waiter would drop his unfriendly behaviour because of this.

The train arrived and we found an empty compartment. Since we had not had the opportunity to pray in peace that day, we made up for it. We had a long train journey ahead of us and plenty of time. Afterwards, I took the Bible because I wanted to know if God would also say something to me that day. I opened it and the first passage I saw was Matthew 12:36. I was speechless, this passage read: "I tell you: Every idle word that men speak, they will have to give an account of it in the day of judgement; for on the basis of your words you will be acquitted, or on the basis of your words you will be condemned."

God obviously has a clear interest in taking into his school those who are willing to be led by him. I had already received the invitation through my wife not to get angry, but to forgive the waiter for his wrongdoing. But I had ignored it.

Because I sought contact with God again in prayer, He made me understand once more, this time more clearly, what His will was.  On this occasion, I should have been more aware in my dealings with other people whether I was contributing to reconciliation or a hardening of positions through my speech. The occasion was minor. But if we give God the opportunity to work in our lives, he will use every opportunity so that we can learn from him and come closer to him step by step.

We have received many such helps, often in very difficult life situations.

In conclusion, here is another example of how concretely God can lead us in modern times with this old book of the Bible.

I (Wolfgang) once got a very strong impulse in prayer to write a letter to someone on a certain matter and point out a clear problem. I did not really like to do this, but the impulse was very clear. So I sat down to write this letter. When it was finished, I somehow had a strange feeling about it and I hesitated to send it. I asked God in prayer for a hint if I could send the letter in this form, after all I had not written it of my own accord. The answer was very clear with Psalm 141:3: "Lord, set a guard before my mouth, a defence before the gate of my lips! Grant that my heart may not incline to evil words, that I may do nothing that is shameful."  I was a little frustrated because the letter had cost me a lot of effort. But I read it again with concentration and discovered a passage in which a few unkind and derogatory remarks were subtly hidden. If I had received such an email myself, I would have been annoyed and simply deleted the entire email. But God obviously intended that this letter should trigger something positive and not be thrown away in anger.

I now removed these passages. But I wanted to be sure that everything was now really as it should be, so I asked God again for an answer. This time I got the passage Psalm 103:2: "Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not the good things he hath done thee." Yes, I did not forget what good he has done and is doing for me again and again, even giving a clear indication of what is wrong and what would be right in my actions, even in such little things.

We noticed it again and again: God wants our actions because he also needs them for other people, and at the same time he unobtrusively guides us step by step. Thank you.