URC Daily Devotion 27 July 2026

Colossians 3:1-4
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,  for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Reflection
Christians, Paul told the Colossians, are those whose lives ‘…are hidden with Christ in God’ (Col 3:3), caught up in the mystery of that relationship with Jesus, held by Christ’s love which is stronger than time and death. That is the basic reality of Christian living, and the source, incidentally, of Christian unity.

We grow up in families and communities which are shaped by history, experience and geography, and that partly determines the ways in which we come to that basic Christian experience of being ‘in Christ’. We have been caught up in the route and experience of the Reformed family of Christians – some 100 million people from 109 countries and 230 churches according to the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Our familial roots are to be found in the reformations of the sixteenth century, particularly as they were experienced in the Swiss cities, and those roots have borne fruit in churches across the world.

It is by no means a monolithic tradition, but it does have particular emphases. The first is that it seeks to let God be God, in mystery, wonder, and grace. The second is that it finds the Word that God speaks in Christ through the Scriptures. The third is that the Reformed know that God is an active God who calls his people to discipleship in the world. The fourth is that we expect to meet God in the world, as much as the Church, for the world (in Calvin’s words) is ‘the theatre of God’s glory’.  Ours is therefore a worldly spirituality.  

Those emphases help shape the Reformed church. Christ is the only head of the Church, and therefore all are equal under him, ministers and lay people alike. There is a concentrated simplicity about Reformed worship which allows God to speak through the Word with minimum distraction.

Prayer
God of new beginnings,
we give you thanks that our lives are ‘hid with Christ’ in you.
We give you thanks for the families that nurtured us
and the church communities which shape us.
We thank you for the grace given to the Reformed tradition
as part of your church catholic.
We pray that our discipleship
may be part of the drama of salvation
which you are working out in the world,
‘the theatre of your glory’.
 
We ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Amen.