When I'm upset, I've compared the story I've told about a situation to my blueprint for the universe, and found a gap.
The story is always a fabrication. Even an almost-true story is still a fairy tale. Programmers know: one mistake in the coding and the program fails. Only the whole truth and nothing but the truth will do, and we don't have access to that.
Blueprints for the universe are largely fatuous; where they're ostensibly reasonable, they're usually unrealistic. No, there's not going to be world peace. No, people are not all suddenly going to become competent and placid. Well-meaning but ain't gonna happen.
In any case, the upset is the problem, not the situation. Upset makes me dumb. God can't easily speak through the cloud of emotion, and, even when He does, He is usually misheard.
I need to de-tell the story before I can ask God the question.
If I get myself into trouble and ask for God's help within the terms of the trouble, I'm defining the range of possible answers. "God, I've robbed a bank and locked myself in the vault by accident, yet now I hear sirens. What do I do?" will probably elicit silence. God's probably gonna wait till the sorry situation has played out and I'm genuinely available to do God's will. Until then, I'll just have to muddle through.
Similarly, if I have told myself a story about a situation and ask God a question from within the story, the range of possible answers, once more, is limited to the scope of the story. If the story is a fabrication, which it is, God can't give me a meaningful answer.
If I think I'm stuck in a spaceship on the way to the planet Tharp and ask God, "Hey. There's a red button and a blue button, which do I press?" God is not going to be able to give me an operable answer if I'm actually on the top deck of the Clapham omnibus. And "Buddy, you're on the bus!" is going to scare the bejeesus out of me, and God's pretty cautious about Exocet-ing unbidden truth into my mind.
To really get an answer from God I have to be (a) available (i.e. not stuck in playing out my own agenda) and (b) story-less.
I empty my day and empty my mind of me then ask God for the right thought or action.
Sure, I can ask God for help, but I remember that God gives me inspiration (spirit), an intuitive thought (mind), or a decision (body). I don't come up with these. I make myself available to receive them. If I'm at peace, BOOM, they're there. If I'm not, good luck.
I ask God and, if an answer does not come straight away, I go do something else, and, whilst doing something else, I'm struck by inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision.
God can't be wrestled to the ground or choked into giving me an answer. Be still and know that God is God. That's what works for me. I have to stop talking, or He can't get a word in edgeways.