Looking for a specific topic or Scripture? Try the search feature:

Looking for a specific devotion? Try the archive:

Devotions Archive
Sad, Anxiety, God's love, Grace, Encouragement, Comfort Dana Rongione Sad, Anxiety, God's love, Grace, Encouragement, Comfort Dana Rongione

The Grace of Jesus in the Waiting

I'm an introvert who cries at commercials. Insurance commercials. Dog food commercials. Once, a mattress commercial got me. Nobody has ever explained why a mattress sale should require tissues, but there I sat, sniffling on the couch like a woman with a deep, personal connection to memory foam (which, actually, I am).

Over the years, I've gotten the message loud and clear that this is a problem.

"Toughen up."

"Don't be so sensitive."

"It's not that big a deal."

I've even said it to myself in the mirror: Pull it together, Dana. Nobody wants a leaky redhead.

So when I recently read John 11, it stopped me cold. Let me set the scene because it's one of the most dramatic in the Bible.

Lazarus is sick. His sisters, Mary and Martha, send word to Jesus with one of Scripture's most tender messages: "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick" (John 11:3).

Read More
Compromise, Spiritual Warfare, Christian Living, The Merlin Chronicles Dana Rongione Compromise, Spiritual Warfare, Christian Living, The Merlin Chronicles Dana Rongione

The Quiet Creep of Compromise

It started so quietly. No trumpet blast. No neon sign flashing WARNING: SIN AHEAD. Just a king, a rooftop, and a little too much time on his hands.

Second Samuel 11 opens with one of the most haunting lines in all of Scripture: "And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem." (2 Samuel 11:1)

Did you catch that? But David tarried. Four little words. A thousand devastating consequences.

Spring had come, the time when a king was supposed to lace up his armor and lead his men into battle. But David didn't go. Maybe he was tired. Maybe he figured he'd earned a break. Maybe he told himself it was just this once. Whatever the reason, he stayed home…

Read More
Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Warfare, Repentance, The Merlin Chronicles Dana Rongione Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Warfare, Repentance, The Merlin Chronicles Dana Rongione

When Cover-Ups Crack

In 1173, construction began on what was supposed to be a magnificent bell tower in Pisa, Italy. Nobody planned on building a landmark. But about five years in, the foundation, a mere three meters deep, set in soft, unstable soil, began to shift. The tower started to lean, and the builders panicked.

Here's the part that really gets me: instead of stopping, tearing it down, and starting over with a proper foundation, they kept building. As they added more floors, engineers in later stages constructed one side of each story shorter than the other, trying to compensate for the lean and make everything look right from a distance. The problem was that this "fix" only made things worse. The added weight increased the lean. The tower ended up not just tilting but curving until it was bent like a banana, leaning and warped. Over the following centuries, engineers tried everything to correct the disaster, including counterweights, steel cables, soil extraction, drainage wells, and concrete foundation pillars. The final stabilization project alone cost over thirty million euros and took ten years to complete.

All because nobody was willing to stop and fix the real problem at the beginning.

Sound familiar?

Read More
Sin, Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Growth, spiritual housecleaning Dana Rongione Sin, Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Growth, spiritual housecleaning Dana Rongione

You Can’t Charm a Viper

I have a confession to make. I used to think I was pretty good at managing certain little... tendencies. You know the kind. That low-grade resentment I kept on a shelf. The habit I knew wasn't exactly glorifying God but wasn't that bad. The thought pattern I let simmer because, hey, at least I wasn't acting on it. I had it under control.

Or so I thought.

The Bible has a word for it: cockatrice.

Now, before you look at me like I've lost my mind, stay with me. The King James Bible uses this creature to paint one of the most chilling and personally convicting pictures of sin I have ever encountered.

Isaiah 59:5 says, "They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper."

Read More