5. Be intentional

   Roadblock - Laziness

   And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. Acts 2:42¹

   Lack of zeal in prayer can render the prayers we do offer ineffective. When your communication with a loved one has been unusually sparse, assuming you have been around each other, you must deal with the barrier present from the lack of communication before healthy communication continues. So it is with our relationship with God. The first words of one's prayer might be repentance for laziness or complacency.

6. Stay God focused

   Roadblock- Selfishness

   You ask and don't receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure. James 4:3

   We can pray with selfish motives. I often wonder what God would accomplish in our lives and churches if we focused entirely on his glory and abandoned the quest for our own. We exist to glorify God. Our prayer time is much more profitable when we pray for the pleasure of God in His own glory than when we pray selfishly. What is the true motive of your prayers? Am I praying for God's to reveal his glory? Or praying for my own comfort and pleasure?

7. Restore broken relationships

   Roadblock- Unresolved hurts and offenses

   1. When you have offended or hurt someone
      So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-25

      We are to suspend the gift of worship to God, which includes prayer, when a broken relationship with a brother or sister in Christ comes to mind. God says, humbly seek to restore your relationships with others before you worship me. One way to worship God is maintain healthy relationships with those around us. Broken relationships hinder your prayers. The command here is to go to your brother and keep a clean slate.

   2. When you haven't forgiven another
      And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing. [But if you don't forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your wrongdoing.] Mark 11:25-26

      This truth is the other side of the previous point. If you hold a grudge against someone, you must forgive them. The verse does not command you to go as it does in Matthew 5:23-25. You can forgive the person who may not even be aware you are holding a grudge. It is hypocrisy to seek forgiveness from God while not offering it freely to a brother. As God brings anger, resentment, or bitterness to mind, immediately confess it and turn from it. He who has been forgiven the greater sin (God forgives you and I) should be able to forgive the lesser sin (the sins of others against us).

   3. When there is marital discord
      Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, even if some disobey the Christian message, they may be won over without a message by the way their wives live, when they observe your pure, reverent lives. Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes; instead, it should consist of the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God's eyes. For in the past, the holy women who hoped in God also beautified themselves in this way, submitting to their own husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You have become her children when you do good and aren't frightened by anything alarming. Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:1-7

      Peter commands wives to submit to their husbands with a gentle and quiet spirit. Husbands are forbidden to take advantage of this and are commanded to honor their wives and live with them in an understanding way. Peter says our prayers are hindered if we violate these principles. Remove the roadblock of unresolved hurts and offenses. Make peace with others quickly. The Bible says the measure of our love for those around us is the gage for our love for God. The Bible is plain to say that the one clearly affects the other. Unresolved marital conflict is a roadblock to prayer. That is why Paul said do not let the sun go down on your anger.²

8. Pray boldly

   Roadblock- Timidity

   Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time. Hebrews 4:16

   Christian boldness comes from a right heart before God combined with a right understanding of truth. Nothing is more frustrating than someone boldly pursuing that which is obviously incorrect. When we get our hearts right before God and our theology (the truth), we pray all the more boldly.

Caution!! Do not despair. Do not get the wrong message. Sinless perfection is not the path to effective prayer, obedience is. We can be obedient with out being perfect. Jesus told us to ask for forgiveness just like he told us to ask for our daily bread. Just like we never get beyond the need for bread, we never get beyond the need to constantly confess and turn from our sin. This is why God look[s] favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:2) You can be humble and submissive to God without being perfect. John Piper wrote:

The trusting prayers of a Christian fly boldly to the throne of heaven when the careful pleas of a humble and repentant servant are laid on the wings of obedience to God, fellowship with Christ, and love for truth and others. May our prayers be effective and may we remove the roadblocks that get in their way.

Copyright © 2005 by Kevin Binkley