Study notes on prayer – Part 23 – 5 prayers that were answered with a “no” – Don Shenton

There were five people who prayed and it wasn’t because they didn’t have the right approach or that they were not living right that the answer was “No.” They graciously accepted the answer:

Moses wanted to go into the Promised Land. He prayed to go in. The Lord finally said, “Speak to me no more of this matter, you are not going in,” and Moses obeyed. Moses was a type of the law and the law could never bring people into the fullness of the promises of God. It took Joshua, the type to Christ, to lead them all the way.

Elijah prayed he might die. We could have missed a lot if Elijah had died. It wasn’t God’s will that he die. Instead of answering his prayers in the positive, He just fed him. Elijah went on that strength for forty days. Many of the great men in the scriptures were so discouraged at times that they prayed to die: Elijah, Moses, Job, Jeremiah.

David prayed that the child might live and God said “No.” 2 Samuel 12:22 David graciously accepted the ‘No’, the will of God though it cost him much. His next child by Bathsheba was Solomon. Jesus, the son of David, wisely prayed, “nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done” and graciously suffered the cruellest death for our sake and the will of the Father.

Then Saul of Tarsus in 2 Corinthians 12:8. I don’t know what it was but it was a thorn in his flesh. I have one. I have prayed more than three times that it be removed, but God says, “No.” The reason it was left in Paul’s life was because he might have been exalted had it been taken away. The Lord left it there to keep him humble. The plague of our heart may keep our feet on the ground and keep us lowly. It may be the way God has of teaching us humility. He said, “No.” We don’t know what Paul’s thorn was and it is nice we don’t, as then we relate it to our thorn in the flesh that remains.

Jesus prayed for the cup to pass from Him. The flesh was weak, but the spirit was willing and the answer was, “No.” If the answer had not been, “No,” what would have happened? A sister saint stood in a convention and said about the prayer experience of Jesus in the garden, “What if He hadn’t been willing or cared if the scripture be fulfilled or if He had prayed and the Lord would have sent the twelve legions of angels, none of us could be here and none of us would have any hope.”