Mistaken for Silence: No
The first is the most obvious. Sometimes God's answer is simply "No." What we ask for, no matter how well-intentioned, could be inappropriate. Yet we often refuse to listen to God's no, insisting instead that God has yet to answer. It is often beyond our thinking to imagine God denying our requests.
Once Jesus and his followers were traveling to Jerusalem. One of the cities they journeyed through was Samaria, so some went ahead to arrange a place with local inhabitants for Jesus and the rest of the disciples to stay. What happened next is interesting:
The people there did not welcome him . . . When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" (Luke 9:53-54)
These two disciples sincerely felt that their question made perfect sense in terms of what had transpired. But did Jesus answer, "Sure, guys, let's smoke 'em"?
Jesus turned on them: "Of course not!" (Luke 9:55 The Message).
God cares deeply about us and hears every request, but that doesn't mean his answer can't still be "No." This becomes particularly clear to me when I think of my role as a father. Nobody loves my children more than I do. But sometimes when they ask for something, the answer must be — for their sake — a firm and deliberate no. More times than not, they don't have a clue as to why. It makes perfect sense in their minds to stay up all night, to eat pizza for every meal, to invest a significant amount of our financial resources into the profit margin of the local mall, and to establish a secondary residence in Orlando. I've seen this lessen as they mature. Their requests are more informed as they learn to apply the values by which they have been raised.
So it is with our souls in relation to prayer. We often make requests that cannot be granted. But we can be assured that God's operative stance toward us is shameless devotion. Even when pain erupts, tragic events are allowed to continue or God denies our requests, we can rest assured that we have been granted a greater blessing — or kept from a deeper, more lasting pain.
And God's no is seldom left to itself. The answer often goes further. When Paul repeatedly begged God to remove his "thorn in the flesh," the answer was "No." But there was more: "[God] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:9). The purpose behind God's refusal and the ramifications it holds for our life are met by the direct presence and power of God. The fullest sense of God's reply is "No, but I'm here . . . and it will be OK. Trust me."