Jesus likened our prayers to requests from children to their fathers.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11 cf. Luke 11:13)
Take this thought a little further in your own experience. What happens when parents flood their children with too many gifts at one time? Some parents have never had enough to do this, but those who are wealthy know the problem well. Too often, with each successive gift the child becomes less responsive. A gift that would normally be appreciated and enjoyed gets only a glance. Then it is tossed aside in the haste to see the next present. Eventually, such children become spoiled. They feel that the world revolves around their wishes, that all others are there for their gratification. If they don’t get their way, they react rudely. Some turn into little tyrants.
Most parents see the problem of over-indulgence and know the solution. Encourage gratitude and enjoyment by spreading out the giving. Give in different ways and on different occasions. Let the child invest himself in some gifts so that he does not take their value for granted. It is not simply that we know to give; we also know how to give—wisely, helpfully, constructively—for the healthy development of the child’s character. That being so, how much more does our heavenly Father know how to give to us!
He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our tendency toward selfishness, toward love of money, toward pride in success and acquisition. He knows that some of our ambitions are unwise.
While He keeps every promise about prayer, He is not so foolish as to spoil us. He may spread out His gifts for our good. Much of His giving is in secret, just as He urges us to do our good in secret. We may feel that He has not answered when in fact He has already supplied everything without our knowing it. We ask in faith. We also receive in faith: “Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).