Sarah Palin sought advice from an unusual source when she was deliberating over how to frame the Alaskan state budget in 2008 – she called on God for guidance, according to emails released under freedom of information.

In an email written in March 2008 she said that she had been praying for direction over the financial negotiations. "I have been praying for wisdom on this ... God will have to show me what to do on the people's budget because I don't yet know the right path ... He will show me though."

The former Alaskan governor's deep religious beliefs are well known. She is an evangelical Christian who belongs to the Assembly of God in her home town of Wasilla, a church whose congregants have been known to speak in tongues. She famously referred to the oil pipeline she had supported in Alaska as "God's will".

But rarely has such a direct connection been drawn between her faith and her policymaking. Her call for divine assistance in drawing up the budget is reminiscent of the controversy that followed George Bush's statement that God had advised him to attack Iraq shortly after the invasion.

The email is all the more poignant in that it was sent from Palin's private yahoo account just five months before she was thrown into the national and international limelight when she was chosen by John McCain to be his vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 presidential elections. The McCain campaign played down the extent of her religious feeling.

Palin's comments on her religious guidance were made at a time when she was locked in a struggle with the Alaskan state assembly over the size of the budget.

Contrary to her subsequent image as a Tea Party favourite slashing back on public spending, she was in fact at loggerheads with several Republican representatives in Alaska who were demanding she made budget reductions.

She made the remarks to Tom Irwin, a close adviser and a senior official in the Alaskan department of natural resources. He replied to the then governor: "Just wanted to encourage you on the budget and let you know I have prayed in Jesus name for you to have wisdom and discernment and that God would bless you and your family."

The Alaskan government released about 13,000 emails on Friday, dating back to Palin's period in office, stretching to 24,000 pages. References to her Christian faith pepper the correspondence.

In an another email exchange with Irwin following the birth of her fifth child Trig, she wrote: "It's still pretty surreal ... and we know we'll only be given what we can handle by our good Lord."

On the day in August 2008 that it was announced that she had been chosen by McCain to be his running mate she emailed her staff saying: "He told me yesterday - it moved fast! Pray! I love you."