happy Monday, friends, and welcome to another Gospel According to! I was listening to my “Fandoms” playlist on Spotify recently and this song came on. It speaks to me every time, but on this particular day I was super inspired and ended up creating a full journal spread and a Bible journaling page as a result. “Rise Up” is about the only song by Andra Day that I’m familiar with, but it’s so good! Hope you enjoy this post!
Fandom: “Rise Up” by Andra Day
Verses: Proverbs 24:16, Psalm 37:23-24, 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Micah 7:7-8
Truth: When we fall, God will always lift us back up again.
Andra Day – Rise Up
“Rise Up” is one of those iconic, need-a-pick-me-up, can’t-help-but-sing kind of songs that a lot of people know and love. It’s probably featured on a great many I’m Sad and Need an Emotional Outlet playlists, and for good reason!
I love the style of this song. It ahs a very minimalist accompaniment to it, just a simple piano with Andra Day’s powerful voice and occasional choral notes. And that style gives you the feeling of intimacy and comfort that is most needed in times of discouragement. It almost feels like she’s singing directly to you, and it’s so wonderful.
Here are some of my favorite moments from Andra Day’s song “Rise Up”:
And I'll rise up, rise like the day, I'll rise up, I'll rise unafraid, I'll rise up, and I'll do it a thousand times again...
All we need, all we need is hope never doubt we have each other, never doubt we have each other We will rise, we will rise, we will rise up.... (insert exquisite vocals here)
The fact that I can literally hear this song just by thinking about it… SO GOOD!!
The Verses
So one verse in particular immediately comes to mind when I think of this song:
For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in [time of] disaster.
Proverbs 24:16 NASB
In the context of Proverbs, “righteous” means someone who follows God, while “wicked” refers to someone who deliberately acts against Him (which a lot of the time means going against the moral code that most humans believe in anyway). But it says almost the EXACT SAME THING as the song!! Rise up, rise like the day, rise 1,000 times and never stay down for long… because God is with us.
The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled down, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.
Psalm 37:23-24 NASB
This verse gives me that same intimate, talking-straight-to-me feeling that the song does. It’s a promise that God will always be there for us. Even when we fall, it’s never permanent.
But as for me, I will be on the watch for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, enemy of mine. Though I fall I will rise; Though I live in darkness, the LORD is a light for me.
Micah 7:7-8 NASB
The book of Micah has some of the most powerful promises and some of the most poignant references to our sinful and fallen state. In this last chapter, Micah acknowledges the sins of Israel, his people, and himself. He puts himself in a humble position before the Lord, accepting the correction that their sins have earned. But then he also expresses the most beautiful confidence in the redemption and salvation of the Lord. This makes me think of the last part of the bridge in “Rise Up,” when you get this sudden decrease in volume, followed by the rousing, dramatic conclusion of the song. It’s that last doubt that the future will be better, finally falling away.
Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NASB
This verse is like me, singing Andra Day’s words to you as you’re reading this post. It’s acknowledgement of your feelings, your circumstances and your suffering, followed by the steadfast reassurance that God will always be with us. Not only because He says He will, but because I’ve experienced it for myself. We will rise, we will rise, WE WILL RISE UP…… (insert mediocre but very enthusiastic vocals here)
The Gospel according to Andra Day – “Rise Up”
I believe that the Gospel message, or the steps of becoming a believer and receiving the gift of salvation, can be broken up into three parts:
- I am. Who is God? What is He like? Who are we, and why are we here? Is there more to life than just the time between our birth and our death?
- God is the Creator and Lord of everything that we know. He is light, He is absolutely perfect, and He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is also love, and He created each and every one of us to live in relationship with Him. We, on the other hand, are hard-wired to resist that relationship. Because of the rebellion of the first humans, our nature is to resist God’s rule, and we are therefore separated from Him. This separation is called sin. Our sin causes us to feel a void or emptiness that we try to fill with other relationships or pursuits (like pleasure or success), but that can only truly be filled with the relationship with God that we were meant to have. For more thoughts on this, check out this post.
- With you. How can I “fix” my sin problem and find joy, peace, and a relationship with God?
- There is only one way to restore the relationship that we were always meant to have with the God who created us, and that is Jesus. As we already discussed above, Jesus, the Son of God, came as a human to rescue and restore us while we were weak, helpless to fix ourselves. He showed the love of God for us by subjecting Himself to all of the indignities and suffering of the Cross, and died a criminal’s death, even though He had done no wrong. Because of His perfect sacrifice, Jesus was able to end the eternal separation between us and God, and now gives us the choice to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. For more thoughts, see this post.
- Always. God shows His faithfulness and steadfast love for His people (originally Israel, now including all who believe in Him) throughout Scripture. He will always be with us, and gives us reminders of His presence and His truth through Holy Spirit, who inhabits every believer. Through Him, we have eternal forgiveness of sin, access to His throne room through prayer, and the ability to grow into the people we were always meant to be, free from the power of sin. After we die, we have the promise of Heaven, where we will see our Lord face to face and never have to suffer or be separated from Him again. For more thoughts, see this post.
To me, “Rise Up” goes best with the “I am” part of the Gospel story. Our suffering, however severe, is caused by sin, ours or others’, ad the fallenness of the world. This song is so very relatable because it speaks to the fact that every single human being who has ever lived has experienced pain and suffering and difficult seasons. It’s a reminder that God is a good and loving Father who sees us and comforts us in all our troubles, even the ones that feel too small (or too big!) to share with other humans.
It also speaks to the “with you” piece of the Gospel, as God promises us that He will always lift us up when we fall and give us new hope each and every day. Because of Jesus, that hope is 100% guaranteed, and as we rely on Him more and more, we become more confident and able to encourage others as well.
My journal pages
For this song, I wanted a gentle-but-empowering aesthetic with lots of pinks and purples. I ended up using one of my favorite pieces of scrapbook paper alongside the softer colors, and it ended up looking so nice! I was also inspired to create a Bible journaling page based on this song.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed and were encouraged by this week’s fandom post. Do you enjoy this song? What’s your favorite I-need-a-pick-me-up song? I’d love to know!
Happy fangirling!
Here are a couple more posts with encouraging songs that you might enjoy:
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