'Petition is arguably the most powerful means for us to gain intimacy with God. This is precisely the knot of petition and its friendship. One might say: Our prayers would be safe, protected from at least one sort of deformation, it we would refrain from asking God to give us the specific object of our desire. We could pray only the last clause of Gethsemane and the third clause of the Lord's Prayer; we could pray only "they will be done," and never hazard the presumption that our own desires are things the Lord might grant or endorse. But we cannot have the friendship that petition makes possible if we do not name our desires.'
Lauren F Winner, The Dangers of Christian Practice, p.83.
