How good do you have to be to have your prayers answered?  If you are perfect will you get a yes to everything?  If your faith is unstoppable and unflappable, will God reign a “yes” to every prayer you wish and mutter.  Jesus Christ himself said, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20)  Clearly it seems Jesus is saying that the answers to prayers will be delivered with good faith.

It is easy for those in the Christian faith to grab onto versus like Jesus saying we can move mountains and use it as a claim for the never ending power of prayer.  I truly think every prayer is answered, but even with the strongest faith on the Earth the answer is sometimes “No.”  As a child, I have never ending faith that my parents were real.  I would ask a question and they would answer.  Sometimes that answer was no and sometimes if I asked enough or even cried, the answer could be yes… like the time I convinced my dad to get me a boomerang thing promising I’d use it all the time (I didn’t).  I speak of this mainly from an article Philip Yancey, my favorite Christian author, wrote years ago. 

 Jesus, God himself, had three prayers He sent to His Father.  Each time the prayer was not answered with a “mountain moving”.  Instead, the answer was a no hidden in the silence of God’s answers.

1) The Failure of the Disciples

Luke 6:12-13 “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God.  And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles;”

Jesus spent all night before making this big decision in prayer. The prayers were undoubtedly asking for God’s guidance and wisdom in this decision.  Yet, what did Jesus get?

Peter: Turned his back on Jesus three times at the moment he needed someone to defend Him.  Jesus even called Simon Peter “Satan” at one point.

Judas: Turned Jesus in for gold

Thomas: Doubted Jesus’ Resurrection

On the night he was betrayed, his disciples fell asleep repeatedly and did not warn him of the approaching guards

In Mark 9:19, Jesus says of his disciples, “"O unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?”  Hardly sounds like God answered His prayers with a Yes.  Luckily for us, the apostles grew into men who defended Jesus to the death.  All but one were martyred for their beliefs in Jesus.

2) Dying on the Cross

Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

In the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus prayers so hard and is under so much pressure he sweats blood.  (It’s actually a medical condition called Hematidrosis, where severe stress or anxiety can cause blood vessels surrounding a sweat gland to burst which sends blood out through the sweat.) Jesus asks that the task at hand, his crucifixion, be given to someone else.  He doesn’t want to die.  He realizes though that his prayer, his want above all else, must be in God’s will.  If it is not God’s will, it won’t be done. 

Jesus spent all night in agony before his arrest.  His faith was unwavering, but instead God’s answer came in the resounding silence of “no” and the approach of Judas’ change bag.

3) Christian Unity

John 17:20-23 “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Amazing.  Jesus’ final prayer in the Garden is for Christians.  That we believe the same thing and we be brought into complete unity.  I think atheists, agnostics, Jews, and Christians would all agree this faith is far from unified.  Just look at this image:

Then, just in Protestantism:

Ya.  That’s hardly unified.  

Jesus, the man who defines faith, heard God answer no multiple times.  Should we not pray then?  Is it worthwhile to spend the time asking God for stuff?  Absolutely it is.  It’s our way of spending time with Him and telling Him our needs.  Should we expect immediate answers?  Should we expect yes if we pray hard enough or have enough faith?  No and no.  God gives us answers, but they aren’t always what we desire.