I love the colour of the key to my car. It’s a gorgeous pop of blue, vibrant and bold. And it goes beautifully with my favourite mustard coloured handbag. This key is not an accessory though, it’s an essential and crucial item for me to access and then drive my car. Without it, I’m going nowhere fast. Without it, I’m pretty much stranded. This key is the tool for activating the engine. It’s the mechanism for bringing about ignition in the car engine.
Ignition happens when I place the key in the keyhole and manually turn it (in my car anyway!). Starting the car engine requires an action by me and once I’ve turned the key, the engine purrs into action.
It’s the same concept when we enter into worship. It requires an action on our behalf, an intentional decision that we are going to enter into worship, despite how we are feeling or what’s on our mind. We need to stir and instruct our soul to worship. We can take inspiration (and comfort!) from King David. His life was defined by his worship of the Lord. Yet we see him too, resolving to worship and making an intentional decision to stir his soul to worship. In Psalm 103 we read of him stirring and encouraging his heart to worship. A deliberate action.
Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. (Psalm 103:1)
The smallness of my key and the smallness of effort it takes to turn it, belies the power of the engine once it is running. I’m no longer stranded! In the same way, the deliberate effort of stirring our soul to worship does not compare to the wonder we encounter as we enter God’s presence.
Blue Skies & Lollipops 