As I pray for Israel I am reminded that our main battle cry is that of worship.

I have read (though I have not checked) that there are over 540 references to worship in the Bible from Genesis 4.4 to Revelation 22.8 and I truly believe that worship is of vital importance and significance to each individual person and to the corporate life of the church.

We are called to worship our God in spirit and in truth. Our Lord Jesus said in John 4 v 23 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. v 24 God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Our Father in heaven calls us to a deep and intimate worshipping relationship – not one marked by outward expression, but one from deep within our hearts.

Psalm 42 v 1-2: As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

A need to know and meet with Him is a key to a spirit filled worship of our Lord. If we do not have a desire or a longing to stand in His presence, worship can become nothing but a fruitless experience.

Sometimes, I don’t feel like worshipping, probably because I’m focusing on me and my circumstances, or the troubles of the world, instead of my Lord. But I know His heart is for me to worship Him. That’s what He made me for. And I want to please Him. So as I start to offer words of adoration, as I start to sing words of thanks, as I start to praise His Holy Name, His Spirit meets with the Spirit within me and what started of as almost a chore becomes an experience of joy. Of love. Of release. Of healing. Of intimacy. The wonderful privilege of being able to praise and worship my Lord becomes so real.

For me, I feel that alot of the more modern songs are about worship, but do not really lead you into actually worshipping. I believe that there is quite a difference between songs sung about Jesus and songs to Jesus.

However, I believe that when we truly worship we take on God’s plan, we live for His glory and we start to change. God does things differently than we do and when we worship in spirit and in truth then we can begin to do things differently too.

As I worship my Lord, I continue to pray for Israel – the Apple of God’s Eye.