Who says that we cannot squeeze water from a stone? In His parable, Jesus shows that even the unwilling will be generous if you are persistent enough in asking them (Lk.11:5-13). And people not otherwise known for their lavish giving, will usually take care of their children. Jesus uses the generosity of the unloving to show us what we should expect from the all-generous, all-loving Father. But persistence and patience might be required.

The verbs in the original, usually translated as 'ask', 'seek', 'knock' would be much more truly rendered as 'keep on asking', 'keep on seeking', 'keep on knocking'. Not that we should expect all the blessings of our Father in the here and now, as some of the audience of Malachi did. They felt that serving God was pointless since the irreligious were in the top-income groups (Mal. 3:13-20). Malachi speaks of the coming Day of the Lord when 'the Sun of Righteousness' will shine, its heat giving growth to those that God has planted, but scorching and withering the evil like weeds.