"O Father in heaven, who fashioned my limbs to serve You and my soul to follow hard after You, with sorrow and contrition of heart I acknowledge before You the faults and failures of the day.

Too long, O Father, I have tried Your patience; too often I have betrayed the sacred trust You have given me to keep, yet You are still willing that I should come to You in lowliness of heart, as I do now, beseeching You to drown my transgressions in the sea of Your own infinite love;

My failure to be true even to my own accepted standards
My self-deception in face of temptation
My choosing of the worse when I know the better...O Lord forgive.
My failure to apply to myself the standards of conduct I demand of others,
My blindness to the suffering of others and
My slowness to be taught by my own [suffering]
My complacence toward wrongs that do not touch my own case and
My over-sensitiveness to those that do,
My slowness to see the good in my fellows and to see the evil in myself,
My hardness of heart toward my neighbor's faults
My readiness to make allowance for my own [faults]
My unwillingness to believe that You have called me to a small work and my brother to a great one...
O Lord forgive."¹

This prayer is free from the inhibitions common to many prayers. It is introspective, self effacing, and brutally honest. John Baillie prayed this prayer in the beginning of the last century and it was included in John Baillie's Diary of Private Prayer which is regarded as a devotional classic.²

A prayer like John Baillie's is free of barriers before God. Sometimes barriers, or roadblocks, creep into our prayers without our realization. A roadblock to prayer is a barrier or an obstruction to prayer. A roadblock hinders our prayers.

A roadblock on the Highway does the same thing. The large white and orange contraptions that block the roadway divert traffic. They indicate that something is broken, wrong, or needs repair. A roadblock does not allow traffic to flow in the originally planned path.

God's plan for us is constant communication with him through our prayers. We both speak and listen to God as we pray. Sometimes barriers form that inhibit our ability to communicate with God in the way God intended. The Bible highlights numerous roadblocks to prayer so we can remove them from our lives and rebuild the lines of communication back to God, without obstruction. The key to effective prayer is contrasted below with the roadblock to effective prayer.

1. Have a relationship with God

   Roadblock - No relationship with God.

   They cry for help, but there is no one to save them -they cry to the LORD, but He does not answer them. Psalm 18:41³

   Non-Christians have a roadblock in their prayers. Christian hearts in tune with the heart of God pray boldly for the will of God as the Spirit leads, but the roadblock to the prayers of the unsaved is that they have no relationship with God. They do not see what God is doing, and they are not living in the Spirit. Some would say that God does not hear the prayers of the unsaved, but that is not true. God is all knowing and it is not that he doesn't hear their prayers, it is that he is not working through them by the Spirit. Some would say God is under no obligation to answer the prayers of the unsaved. This is certainly true. While God knows what the unsaved ask for, his face is actually set against them.⁴ He is not listening.

2. Confess the sin in your heart

   Roadblock - Sin in ones heart

   If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. However, God has listened; He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer. Psalm 66:18-19

   The writer of Psalm 66 says that God does not listen to my prayers when I am aware of (literally "when I see") sin in my heart. God certainly hears the prayers, but he is not listening. Listen in this verse means to "pay attention to." God inclines his attentiveness back to his children when they pray with a humble and contrite spirit of repentance, confessing the sins of the heart. The question might be, is God always obligated to answer my prayers? I think not. When I pray in ignorance or error, God is not obligated to answer my prayers either. God will certainly not answer a Christian's prayer to bless an immoral relationship which violates his commanded will. A broken relationship is a barrier to effective communication. God's word says, he is not attentive to prayer from dirty hearts.

3. Repent (turn away) from wrong actions

   Roadblock - Sin in ones daily walk

   "When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. "Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Seek justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause." Isaiah 1:15-20

   This roadblock is dirty hands. Do you take advantage of people in business? Have you deceived others for personal gain? Whether for financial gain or even just reputation? God says I will not listen to you when you will not stop doing wrong, so repent, and turn from known sin in your life.

4. Stay in constant fellowship with Christ

   Roadblock - Broken fellowship with Christ

   If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples. John 15:6-8

   The result of the three previous points is broken fellowship with God. God wants us to walk moment by moment with Christ. In Christ means intimate ongoing fellowship with him. For his "words to remain in us" we must be permeated with the Scriptures. Live, think, walk, and breathe the words of Christ. When we do not remain in him and his word in us, our prayers are hindered. Lack of scriptural knowledge and spiritual understanding is the roadblock when his word does not remain in us.

Copyright © 2005 by Kevin Binkley