Yes, No....Not Yet.

In our prayer God gives us usually only three answers when we pray.

1. Yes - your prayer is answered.

2. No. - your prayer is refused by God. 

Don't loose heart - this is not a bad thing - this is a good thing!  A no from God is a time to reflect on what you were asking for, if it was asked in the right heart.  Was it a selfish desire? If you have asked in the right mindset then know that this is your personal lesson that the will and justice of God, for the will of God and the justice of God is always perfect.  You may even never know why the answer is no.  But if you go forth and submit to the will of God then you usually find the answer for the "No" was because if He had said yes it would have diminished or cancelled a grace or gift He wished to give you later.  

3. Not yet.  God's timing is not our timing and we have to understand this, we will wait patiently for what He said He will do, we may even have to wait our lives for it, but trust me, He doesn't forget what He has promised.

These three answers that we receive in our petitions on earth also mirror the answer we shall receive when we petition God to enter Heaven.

1. Yes - "Well done my good and faithful servant."  You have fought the good fight and by your love and God's grace you have merited heaven.  You shall know the fullness of seeing our Holy God in the face to which your flesh could not while you lived!  What joy is this, how our soul will rejoice to finally receive the fullness of the love of God that it could not taste while in the flesh.  How your soul longs for this.  

2. No. - "Depart from me..." What horror is this! To know that we have failed Him to such an extend that we shall be burned by the everlasting wrath of God for all time.  As God's love that is infinite and shall be enjoyed in heaven to a degree that we cannot perceive on the earth, so too will the wrath of God burn forever for the deeds that we have done to offend God.  Many it seems are determined to enter the fire!  Yet God, out of his love and mercy may allow them to live a long time in their evil, calling them constantly to repentance.  Their pain and suffering in Hell will be of a horror that cannot be described on the earth, the first suffering is the soul knowing the eternal separation from God.  How horrible it will be to relive the times on the earth when God gave you so many chances to repent and you rejected them.  

3.  Not yet. - Although not so evil to merit heaven, you bear the stain of sins for such that you cannot be presented before the Holy God.  As God is perfect, then His will is perfect, and His justice is perfect, for no aspect of God can not be perfect.  How God loves the souls in Holy Purgatory, and although He does not wish any soul to suffer the purifying fire of Purgatory - his perfect Holy Justice DEMANDS it.