Prayer is one of the basic tools for the Christian life. Yet it confounds and challenges many people of faith. There are numerous resources available for the study and practice of prayer. The publication of a new title, Your 100 Day Prayer by John I. Snyder, provides an opportunity to revisit some older resources and compare the strengths of this and other publications about prayer.

Jesus gave the basic form of prayer in the Lord's Prayer. Some have suggested that it be called The Disciples' Prayer since they (and we) are the ones for whom it was intended. Albert Winn includes the Lord's Prayer as part of A Christian Primer. Along with the Ten Commandments and The Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer provides disciples with the basic vocabulary of Christian faith and formation. Winn's book is a good read and can be used for group study as well. In addition, I'm pretty sure that some of its material had been used in a few sermons.

The Workbook of Living Prayer is a great resource for a group to use to study and practice prayer. Maxie Dunnam provides a resource for daily reflection and prayer within a six week time frame. Each week the group gathers to share questions and pray with and for each other. The strength of this approach is that it provides opportunity to gather with others on the spiritual journey. Additional group time can be found by utilizing other titles with this format.

Another useful resource is the Guide to Prayer series by Rueben Jon and Norman Shawchuck and published by The Upper Room. I have used a couple of titles in this series but found the Guide for Prayer for Ministers and Servants to be especially valuable. It is organized by the liturgical calendar beginning in Advent. Each week is structured around a devotional theme with scripture readings for every day along with other readings from various sources to be used for reflection. The format calls for a time to silent or written reflection as well as including a hymn for each week.

To these resources is now added John I. Snyder's Your 100 Day Prayer. The subtitle is provocative: The Transforming Power of Actively Waiting on God. Snyder notes in the Introduction that his book is not intended for learning how to pray, something for which each of the previous titles can be used. Rather the 100 day approach is specifically designed as "a guide to lead you through a 100-day period of prayer as you face a crisis or problem of greater than normal difficulty" (p.1). So this can be an intensely personal book. In addition, Snyder suggests that the 100 day framework is a good approach to use in a family setting.

While there is nothing to say that the other resources could not be used for family devotions, there is something intentional about Your 100 Day Prayer that invites the reader/pray-er to use it for that purpose. The other resources are useful and productive to teach about and practice prayer, but Snyder brings the intensity of a challenging matter to bear within a specific time frame.

There is nothing to suggest that 100 days is some sort of spiritual time frame that helps God produce results. But in a world that is marked by so many units of measure, having a daily time for an appointment with God - and possibly with other family members or covenant partners - is a method to gauge the development of discipleship.

The book has four (4) - twenty-five (25) day sections. The first is not titled but the second is organized as The Power of Persistence. The third section is The Silent Heaven and the concluding one is labeled When God Says No. Each day contains a scripture reference and reflection of several paragraphs along with "Today's Prayer." Each daily section concludes with a space to journal on "Today's Progress."

As with any resource, you may find that not all of the reflections or prayers fit where you are at a given moment. That is to be expected. The benefit of the book is that it provides another resource which can be used in the journey of prayer. It can be used, yes, and even adapted. Like cookbooks, works about prayer can often used as a recipe guide which can help give elements and frame a time. But the end result can only be measured by the way in which the resource produces fruit for those using it. 

A popular bumper sticker proclaims: Prayer Changes Things. Like C.S. Lewis, I have observed that prayer very often changes the one who has prayed. John Snyder has created a useful resource for the ongoing practice of prayer. May it be fruitful for the individuals, families and faithful communities who use it.