“Sunday’s Coming” by Zach Williams

When your week feels like a beat down
And you can’t tell the night from day
And you’re tired of fighting battles
When all you feel is pain, oh
It’s a heavy weight
There’s hope on the horizon
‘Cause the cross was not the end
Let joy come in the morning
And, child, lift your head
Don’t you give up yet

Keep on holdin’ on
There’s gonna be a breakthrough
Keep on holdin’ on
Don’t stay buried in that grave
If He can roll the stone
He can send the darkness runnin’
Might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’
It might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’

So let your soul start singing
And dry those tear-stained eyes
There’s a new life and you can breathe in
You’re gonna see the light on the other side

Keep on holdin’ on
There’s gonna be a breakthrough
Keep on holdin’ on
Don’t stay buried in that grave
If He can roll the stone
He can send the darkness runnin’
Might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’
It might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’

Oh oh, Sunday’s comin’
Oh oh, Sunday’s comin’

For the mama’s praying for their family
Your Sunday’s comin’
For the daddy’s struggling to make ends meet
Your Sunday’s comin’
And if addiction’s bringing you
To your knees your Sunday’s comin’
Oh, if anybody here wants to be set free
Your Sunday’s comin’

Keep on holdin’ on
There’s gonna be a breakthrough
Keep on holdin’ on
Don’t stay buried in that grave
If He can roll the stone
He can send the darkness runnin’
Might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’
It might feel like Friday
But your Sunday’s comin’

Source: LyricFind

Written by Ethan Hulse, Nick Schwarz, Zach Williams

Dear God, I sat down to spend this prayer time with you this morning, but I didn’t feel like doing scripture. I felt like freshening things up a bit by looking at a song. I was going to do a worship song, but I came across this one on my “Christian” playlist. Then I thought that maybe I should spend some time praying for friends and family. My wife. My children. My parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. My coworkers, my friends. Our leaders, from world leaders on down to city employees. The patients at our clinic. The volunteers at our clinic. The other nonprofits in town that serve and love others. The churches in town, some of whom are seemingly struggling and some of whom are seemingly striving. My friends who are mourning the loss of a child or a spouse. I guess we can throw me on there as well, although it is always harder to know how to pray for myself except that I want to just be completely yours.

Looking back at these lyrics, I do think I take issue with this song in just one little way. Sometimes, I might never see that Sunday. There are some things that I want that might never resolve on this side of death. I just might have to learn to live through the pain, confusion, and ignorance of Friday and Saturday with faith in you and peace in the idea that none of this is about what I want, but about what you want.

Father, I’m holding on, and I am certainly expecting you to do amazing things. In fact, I expect you to do things that are beyond what I can imagine. And to me it might look like losing, just like the cross looked like losing to everyone who loved Jesus and lived through those two days. And I trust that one day, whether it is this side of death or the other, I will live to see the glory of everything you have done. Not that I’m complaining about my current reality. I have it better than I have a right to. I have so much joy in my life. And there is some success too that I attribute to you. I just don’t want to think that my life has to look like winning in my eyes to prove to me that you are winning in the heavenly realm and doing your will in this world. So I worship you. I praise you. I thank you. I ask that you lead the leaders, comfort the mourners, teach the ignorant (I’m in that camp), draw the rebels to you, and heal the wounded. Do all of this for your glory and the joy you have in communing with your creation.

I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 

“The Father’s House” by Cory Asbury

“The Father’s House” by Cory Asbury

Sometimes on this journey, I get lost in my mistakes
What looks to me like weakness is a canvas for Your strength
And my story isn’t over, my story’s just begun
And failure won’t define me ’cause that’s what my Father does
Yeah, failure won’t define me ’cause that’s what my Father does

Ooh, lay your burdens down
Ooh, here in the Father’s house
Check your shame at the door (ooh)
‘Cause it ain’t welcome anymore (ooh)
Ooh, you’re in the Father’s house

Arrival’s not the end game, the journey’s where You are
You never wanted perfect, You just wanted my heart
And the story isn’t over, if the story isn’t good
A failure’s never final when the Father is in the room
And failure’s never final when the Father is in the room

Ooh, lay your burdens down
Ooh, here in the Father’s house
Check your shame at the door (ooh)
‘Cause it ain’t welcome anymore (ooh)
Ooh, you’re in the Father’s house, yeah

Prodigals come home
The helpless find hope
Love is on the move
When the Father’s in the room
Prison doors fling wide
The dead come to life
Love is on the move
When the Father’s in the room

Miracles take place
The cynical find faith
And love is breaking through
When the Father’s in the room
The Jericho walls are quakin’

Strongholds now are shakin’
Love is breaking through
When the Father’s in the room
I said love is breaking through
When the Father’s in the room

Ooh, lay your burdens down
Ooh, here in the Father’s house
Check your shame at the door
‘Cause it ain’t welcome anymore
Ooh, you’re in the Father’s house
Yeah, lay your burdens down
Ooh, here in the Father’s house
Ooh, you’re in the Father’s house

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Cory Asbury / Ethan Hulse / Benjamin Hastings

Dear God, I want to get into the lyrics of this song in a second, but my overall thought this morning with this song is, what would it be like if the church represented this to people? If they didn’t see our politics or our policing of sin? If they saw a place for the wounded to come and be loved? To be supported, nurtured and healed? If they saw us living your fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, and self control?

I’ve mentioned the Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso. I think what makes it so appealing to the world is that Ted is completely worldly, as is everyone else in the show, but he exhibits nearly all of the fruits of the Spirit (besides peace). While the writers can create an extraordinary character who exhibits the other fruits, peace is one even they cannot write about apart from you (in my opinion). But thinking of the locker room on Ted Lasso as the English Premier League football team’s version of a church, the environment Ted created is the kind of thing Cory Asbury is singing about here. He created a type, albeit incomplete, of your House. At one point at the end of the series, Ted looks at the guys on the team as they all have their hands in the middle and says, “I know folks like to say, ‘There’s no place like home.’ And that’s true. But, man, there ain’t a whole lot of places like AFC Richmond either.” Here is a link to the scene from Ted Lasso with the warning to anyone reading this that it contains a huge spoiler at the end of the series should you want to watch it.

With that said, let’s look at some of these lyrics:

Sometimes on this journey, I get lost in my mistakes
What looks to me like weakness is a canvas for Your strength

I’ve heard this song several times, but I’ve never spent time with the lyrics. Some of them caught my ear this week and I knew I wanted to sit down with it like this this morning. So what if we allowed ourselves to live into this verse? What if I allowed myself to live into this verse? I get lost in my mistakes. [My] weakness is a canvas for Your strength. What if we lived into that and then offered that to the world?

Arrival’s not the end game, the journey’s where You are
You never wanted perfect, You just wanted my heart
And the story isn’t over, if the story isn’t good

I LOVE this first line. I’m not here this morning so you’ll let me into your eternal life. I’m here this morning because I need you. I need to spend some time focused on your Holy Spirit ministering to me, speaking to me, teaching me, and comforting me. The arrival is not what my life is about. If you had created me for just the afterlife then you would have just created me as an angel. No, you wanted me for this journey. You are here in the present moment, not the future. I cannot find you there this side of death. No, you are only in this present moment.

The other parts of this verse are also good. First, I think you do want perfect, but you just know it isn’t going to happen. But if you have my heart then the rest will follow. Because where my heart is, there will my treasure be also (See Luke 12:34 – Parable of the Rich Fool). And just because my story doesn’t look good doesn’t mean it’s over–even if it doesn’t look good at the time of my death. I don’t have to see what you are doing long-term to have faith in you now. Thinking of Job 38, who am I to question you?

Oh, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, you know what’s happening for me right now. You know where my concerns are. You know I have people I love who think of me as their enemy. You know there are strangers who think of me as their enemy as well. Well, I surrender any rights I might feel in this moment to deserve their love or respect. It’s no mine to give or to demand. But I do pray for each of them. I pray for the soil of their heart. Some of them have hearts akin to the path. Some of them have rocky soil. Some with thorns. And some have great and rich soil. Whatever the case, and whomever they are, I pray that all of them will have deep, rich, dark soil that will give your Holy Spirit to move in them. I pray the same thing for myself. Help me to weed the soil of my heart. Help me to get rid of the thorns that represent the cares of this world and the pursuit of wealth. Help me to get rid of the cares of advancing myself over my neighbor. Help me to get over the cares of my rights not being respected. And I pray this for all of those on my heart as well. Heal them. Help them to find you. Help them to find peace. Help them to truly channel you into this world. Help us all, Jesus. Help us all, Holy Spirit. Help us all Father.

I pray this in the name of the Triune God,

Amen