Small Means

When God undertakes to accomplish something, there is nothing that the Lord God shall take in His heart to do, but what He will do it (Abraham 5:4). Often the means used by the Lord to accomplish His “strange act” and to perform His “strange work” (see T&C 101:20) are very small indeed. Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me, but behold, I say unto you that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass, and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes, and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls (Alma 17:8). It is almost always the case that the Lord uses simple things to confound the mighty.¹ The Lord has a way of bringing great things to pass through small measures.² Is not the pattern always the same? Does not God manifest Himself to the world through the weak things first (see T&C 54:4)? He uses such small means they are unseen except through faith. Only when the small means accomplish what God foretold are they mighty to save. Only the scriptures are able to define what matters and how God’s hand is moving to fulfill His promises.³ God uses “small means” and “simple things” to accomplish His greatest influence.⁴