God’s Miracles From Small Actions: A 4-Part DevotionSample

How many choices do you make every day? Recent studies suggest that, for the average person, it’s around 35,000! Especially when our days are busy, routine decisions can run on autopilot, hardly requiring conscious thought: pouring a cup of coffee, checking your phone, putting on a coat. But we know nothing is wasted in God’s economy, not even our smallest choices (see Romans 8:28). Sometimes in our life of faith, it’s the common — even seemingly insignificant — actions we take that can have a ripple effect, leading to great impact in the hands of the Miracle Worker.

Reflect on these biblical examples of people who made ordinary choices that God then used for His extraordinary plan. May you be encouraged that God still works through seemingly small actions today.

Day 1: Drinking water

Read: Judges 7:1–21

Reflect: God tells Gideon to take on the Midianites and wants Israel to know this victory will be from Him alone, not because of the men’s strength or valor. So God instructs Gideon to reduce the number of men fighting, first by asking them to self-select. Anyone afraid to fight is free to go home. Over two-thirds of the men leave. But God wants an even smaller army, so He instructs Gideon to have the men go down to the water to drink.

Most of the men kneel down to drink from the source. But 300 of them choose to lap up the water with their hands. From this seemingly trivial decision God selects His army: the smaller group of men who lapped up the water. With the troops in place, God shows His power as they defeat the Midianites despite being outmatched 450 to 1.

The point here is not to adjust your water-drinking habits, but to marvel at the ways of the Lord. We recognize God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts (see Isaiah 55:8–9). We give thanks that God is in control and in His hands even the mundane can hold meaning.

Consider: Next time you take a sip of water, remember that God can take even our mindless actions and turn them into something miraculous.