...living a life of reforming...

One of the things I love about the Reformation 500 years ago is something that is often overlooked, and it is the unique and different view of the human person that was such an important part of the effort to reform the church.

Essentially the Reformers sought to return to the Scriptural view of the human person, namely, that we are creatures made in the image and likeness of God, and we have chosen to be tarnished by sin, and yet we have been restored to redemption through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and savior.

This basic image and likeness of God into which I have been created has been distorted by my sin.  This is why I need Baptism, even though initially I know this Baptismal reformation only in faith.  I experience this new identity that I inherited and lost in my spiritual journey.  This is why daily prayerful solitude is so important because in it I become reformed and purified from my life of sin.  As my desire for God grows so does the grace of Baptism.   What is initially embrace in faith is now experienced in daily living.

Growth in prayer is always life-long because of my personal interior struggle with sin is life-long.  So it makes sense to me that the grace of God, God giving me what I need — not what I deserve — is what makes this reformation possible.  To be recreated and reformed, is the purpose of my life.  It calls for conversion and change, which requires openness and receptivity to God.

This, then, is the reason and purpose — indeed, the grace — of prayer.

it is found and embraced in solitude.  Thus the prayerful solitude to which we are all called to embrace and live.  Our whole person must be changed, changed back into the person in which God created us — back into His image and likeness.  It is not an option.  It IS life, our life.  This, then, is the life and mission of Jesus Christ, to restore us back into His image and likeness, for we cannot do this on our own.     Jesus knew that he needed to be born, suffer, die on the cross, and to be resurrected three days after His death.   It is only through Jesus Christ that we are restored back into the image and likeness of God.

Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Living God have mercy on me a sinner.

From the Bible:

“I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord” Jeremiah 30:17.

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” Psalm 51:12.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you”

1 Peter 5:10.

“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” Acts 3:19-21.