Seasons of waiting

January 30th, 2024

Dear church family

In the final verse of Psalm 27 (one of my favourites!), it says
"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD"
Often, waiting is one of the most difficult actions to be asked of us by God. Each of us will immediately be able to think of situations (or you might be in a season of waiting currently), where you've not known what was coming next, you were waiting for answers to prayer, or waiting for God to move in a specific situation - these seasons of waiting are common in our walk as disciples of Jesus.

However... the frustrating part of this is that naturally as humans we are not amazing at waiting for things...! Often when people talk about waiting on God, phrases such as "waiting well" or "waiting expectantly" are used... but how do we wait on God whilst also growing in our faith?

Firstly, we WORSHIP... Worshipping takes our minds away from ourselves and our own situations and encourages us to look up to God - fixing our eyes on Him, declaring his beauty, splendour, faithfulness, goodness -
this enables us to worship in the waiting...

Secondly, we PRAY... Prayer is our open line of communication with God - He's never *not* listening to us - so whenever we speak to Him, be assured that He is always listening! Talk to him, tell him how you're feeling, be persistent in prayer -
as we say to the kids in Firestarters:
Keep it Simple, Keep it Real and Keep it Up!

Thirdly, we GATHER... Gathering together as a community and not shying away from coming together with your family is such a powerful and important aspect of waiting on God - we are stronger when we are together, we stand in unity - giving space for God to move and waiting to see what He's going to say or do next -
we are all integral in each other's seasons of waiting...

Finally, we TRUST. We look back on God's faithfulness to us in the past, and we can trust Him for the future. We hear others share stories of where God has moved in situations - and we trust He will move in ours. We pray for one another, worship together, declare truth and love over each other as a family - trusting that He will meet all our needs. In the penultimate verse of Psalm 27 it says,

"I remain confident of this -
I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living"

If you are in a season of waiting at the moment - you are not alone... If we can be praying for you at all, please do feel free to let us know...

Every blessing and much love, as ever,

Izzy xxxxx

SUNDAY GATHERING - 10:30AM Join us this Sunday as we continue our sermon series 'I AM - Who is Jesus?'. For those who are unable to attend in person please join us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5j6xVdL5sz0

ASHFORD LIFE SKILLS COURSE Our church partners with Christians Against Poverty (CAP UK) to support local people here in Ashford who are facing debt and other financial challenges. This course is open to all and starts this afternoon!
To sign up or for more info please visit our website: https://www.willesboroughbaptist.church/cap

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TOGETHER TUESDAYS - Tuesday 30th January at 6pm.
Come and enjoy a free meal & some company! This is for anyone who wants to join from our church family and wider community. Please sign up on ChurchSuite asap for the final few spaces if you would like to come. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements:
https://willesboroughbaptistchurch.churchsuite.com/events/epqws0vk

BUMPS TO BABIES - ON PAUSE Some of you may have seen on social media that we have had to take the difficult decision to pause Bumps to Babies for a few weeks.
As we mentioned last week, the lovely Sonya's job role is changing and as a result she is having to work full time which means she's no longer free to run Bumps to Babies which has been a vitally important ministry for almost three years.
We are putting out this plea to our church family as we are looking for someone (or a core team) who can commit to be able to be there every Tuesday morning during term-time - including the set up, pack down and washing of all the equipment/toys!
Please get in touch with Sonya if you think this may be something you feel God is calling you into on sonya_m_jones@hotmail.com

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LADIES MEAL OUT This is a shout out to ALL of the lovely ladies who are part of our church family to share a meal together and have a chance to get to know each other better! Join us at Jay's Soul Food (https://www.jayssoulfood.com/) in Ashford on Saturday 10th February at 7pm.
To sign up and book your place here: https://willesboroughbaptistchurch.churchsuite.com/events/jgu1mwal