Good fathers give good answers, even to bad requests

Using the analogy of a child asking his father for food, Jesus explains to us that God knows exactly how to bless us as Christians. When we ask for something good, He's not going to give us something bad instead.

But what if we flip Jesus' analogy? What father among you, if his son asks for a snake, will give him the snake? In our modern world, this doesn't sound unfathomable. Snakes are somewhat common pets these days. But in Jesus' time and place, a snake was about the worst thing you could mess around with, so the answer would have been "no way would I give my kid a snake". Though the Father knows how to give good gifts to us, we don't always know how to ask for those good gifts. As a child would prefer to eat 5 bags of gummy worms than anything on the same plate as a piece of broccoli, so also do we often confuse what we want with what's good for us.

The great thing about God is that He will never give us the wrong answer. Prayer will always result in that which most glorifies God, even if that doesn't necessarily involve granting our desires.