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The Lord is With You in Your Grief
Dear downhearted, Grief is the emotional pain that accompanies loss. 2020 has been a year of grief for many of us. We’ve lost jobs, relationships, money, dreams, traditions, experiences, a sense of normalcy, and some of us have even lost loved ones. When the waves of grief are crashing on your life or the dark …
Christ Is More Powerful Than We Realize
Dear Downhearted, This year, 2020, has been one of the toughest and most troubling. It doesn’t seem to be ending well either. We are seeing a far greater number of Covid-19 cases than before. With new lockdown measures in Philadelphia, many have new concerns about their job security. It seems that the waves of troubles …
Accept Jesus’ Invitation for True Rest
Dear downhearted, I have been thinking about you… how Christmas is normally your favorite time of the year and how much you love the hustle and bustle of the season. However, the uncertainty and stress of this year have contributed to you feeling tired, stressed, and worn out. So many areas of life seem hard …
God is Near
Dear Downhearted, I’m sorry that you’re experiencing discontentment in this season. I’m sorry as well for the potentially accompanying disappointments, unmet hopes, or even grief. I’d like to encourage you today with some truth from Psalm 73:21-26. Psalm 73 describes one of Asaph’s bouts with discontentment. The psalmist had become envious of the evildoers around …
God Is With Us In Our Loneliness
Dear downhearted, I remember that one very difficult period of loneliness in my life came as I was graduating seminary and transitioning into the work world. I had grown really close to a small group of friends in my program after spending three years together. We became like a little family. As graduation came near, …
In Jesus There is Certainty
Dear Downhearted, How do we continue to hope in the midst of uncertainty? This is a lesson the Lord has continued to teach me the past several years as my wife and I have pursued adoption. Perhaps most poignantly, it was a little over a year ago that we found ourselves once again asking, “Will …
Comfort from the Psalms
Dear Downhearted, You are not alone in feeling weariness in this season. This year has been uniquely challenging, and the holidays have a way of bringing this pain to the surface. Thank you for persevering, for pressing on, and for seeking encouragement. I want to encourage you that, when you feel crushed, fatigued, reluctant to …
God Grieves Too
Dear Downhearted, You’re experiencing grief in this season. The holidays can make this experience more poignant. If you’ve recently lost a loved one, maybe this is the first Christmas season you have gone through without them. However you’re experiencing it, grief is a complex process. In light of that, I do not want to take …
What Does God’s Word Say Is True?
Dear Downhearted, There are times and seasons in life that make you feel the burden of your humanness. Often there seems to be more questions than there are answers, more worries than there are joys, and more uncertainties than there are assurances. Fear and uncertainty come natural to us. I recall a certain season not …
Jesus Was Weary Too
Dear downhearted, Jesus was weary too. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and …
A Cure for Discontentment
Dear downhearted, A lot of us are feeling discontent this year. As I think about it, the feeling of discontentment, as common as it is to our human experience, is actually intimately connected to who we are as people created in the image of God. The reason we are discontent, at bottom, is because we …
What is Loneliness?
At Citylight Church, we strive to be a culture shaped by the gospel. As a gospel culture, we look to the gospel for solutions to our problems and one of the most significant and common problems we face today is loneliness. What is loneliness? Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo, director of the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at …