Have you ever noticed how children ask? Boy, do they ask—freely and often! One story tells of a little boy who was misbehaving one night when his father was trying to get him into bed. The boy’s mother had gone to a meeting and his father was taking care of things at home. Long after the little boy had been tucked in for the night, he was doing the classic drink of water routine: “Dad? I need a drink of water.” His father came upstairs and gave him a drink of water, and of course a short time later the boy had to go to the bathroom. This happened several times. Finally the exasperated dad reached the limit of his patience and said, “No more. Young man, you get into bed and you stay there.”

A few minutes later, however, this father heard the pitter-patter of little feet upstairs. He bolted to the foot of the stairs, this time angry that his reading had been interrupted. He yelled up to his misbehaving son, “Look, I’m telling you for the last time! You get in bed and you stay in bed! If you get out of bed one more time, you’re in trouble. I’ll be coming up there and you’ll get a whipping!”

For a moment it was very quiet. Then a little voice drifted down: “Daddy, when you come up here to give me a whipping, could you bring me a glass of water?”

That’s how children are. They never quit. It doesn’t matter how many times you say no, they keep coming back. They keep asking. They ask and ask and ask.

I think that’s what Jesus is talking about here. He wants us to come to Him and…ask.

David Jeremiah, Prayer: The Great Adventure (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1997), 22–23.