Tiny Causes, Huge Effects

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

In 1996, Manila, capital city of the Philippines, suffered an outbreak of cholera due to a proliferation of flies and cockroaches. The mayor announced a bounty on the bugs, dead or alive, and thousands were brought in by citizens who were paid on the spot. Health officials knew that huge problems could be prevented by dealing with tiny causes.

Stopping that cholera outbreak was an example of the law of the harvest: sow a tiny cure and reap a huge benefit. Just as removing tiny bugs saved a city, so a tiny thought in our minds can have huge results. That’s why Proverbs says to “keep your heart with all diligence . . . [and] put away from you a deceitful mouth” (4:23–24).

Thoughts and words are powerful. What we meditate on and speak can do great good or great harm. In the Bible, the Christian has access to the most powerful living words ever written, words that can renew the mind. Make sure this week that you spend time sowing seeds in your mind that will bear godly fruit in your life.

History’s worst acts began with a tiny, unguarded thought that yielded an ungodly harvest of destruction.