Denied prayers in the Bible

The Bible records many cases of answered prayers. But it also records some cases of prayers that were denied.

Abraham prayed that God would spare Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham had family living there, which may have motivated his prayer. He appealed to God to spare the city, confident that the Lord would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked. The Bible records that instead the few righteous were warned to flee. Abraham's relatives were among them.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed that the cup should pass from him -- generally taken to mean that he should be spared death by crucifixion. If ever a prayer should convince us of Jesus' full participation in our humanity, that is the one. And if ever he had join in the suffering of all that humanity must suffer, then he joined us that night with the devastating refusal of his prayer. After Jesus met an utterly brutal end, God made that right too and raised Jesus from the dead.

In both these cases the prayer was heard. The petitioner was right to think that God was listening, and that God was working in the situation. The one in prayer was even right in their confidence that, because of God's goodness, things would in the end be well again. But that did not mean that they received exactly what they asked.