The Prayer of Jabez: Music...A Worship Experience (CD) by Various Artists

Capitalizing on the huge success of Dr. Bruce Wilkinson's book of the same name, this Christian rock compilation basically runs through the themes of the titular Biblical figure's short, simple prayer for abundance. The tunes are seemingly soft rock by any other name, but one assumes that such Christian rock luminaries as Geoff Moore, Rebecca St. James, and Sarah Sadler know what they're doing. Erin O' Donnell's breathy, Mary Magdalene-esque "Be in Your Blessing" is a particular high point, proving that prayer, too, can be sexy, while Jill Phillips's anthemic album-closer "The Day Is Dawning" is a hopeful beacon to the future. While there's no song here quite as succinct as the original prayer, (or, for that matter, as Janis Joplin's pithy "Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?"), THE PRAYER OF JABEZ is a smooth contemporary exegesis of this popular Biblical text.