Jesus longs for us to pray shameless and audacious prayers. He tells us this in the wonderful parable of the man desperately knocking on his neighbor's door at midnight looking for bread. Because of the man's 'shameless audacity', his neighbor will get up and give him what he needs. (Luke 11 TNIV)
Prayer is a mystery in many ways - and yet it is so simple in others. God, it seems to me, longs for us to come with shameless, desperate even - audacity. The gospel's are full of the stories of people who came to Jesus with their needs in this way. Look in any of the four accounts. Specifically - look at Matthew 8 and 9. The Centurion, the woman suffering bleeding, the leper, the friends bringing the paralysed man to Jesus.
They all came.
They all asked.
They all believed.
They all demonstrated shameless audacity. And Jesus answered their prayers. He help up their faith as a model for those who would follow him.
The gospel's would be shorter, and less interesting without their stories. Our lives will be all the poorer if we do not learn from their example and trust God enough to approach Him with the same sort of shameless, desperate audacity.