Indian paint brush (bergamot) growing among the weeds close to a nearby ditch. It used to grow in a large section of a field but was regularly mowed down by the owner, so it jumped the road went over the hill and now begins to flourish. The leaves are used to make Earl Grey tea.
Jesus encourages us to pester God for whatever we want. He tells a little story about a man who keeps after his neighbor to lend him some bread until the neighbor gets out of bed to give it to him. God will give us what we need because of our persistence in asking. When we keep asking God for something we are expressing our total dependence on God, so a prayer of petition is also a prayer of adoration.
Jesus says, "Ask and you will receive." Most of us have asked God for favors that we have not received. A genuine prayer of petition includes our admitting that God knows what is best for us. We do not want God to give us something that would be bad for us. I have lived long enough to thank God for not answering all of my prayers. At the time some of them looked like the perfect thing for me, but looking back from the vantage point of age I see that they would have been bad, some even disastrous, for me. I find it helpful when I ask God for something to say explicitly, "if it is Your will."
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