---
# --- identity
title: "Step 46: I must be small to be great."
work: "The New Message from God"
locale: "en"
# --- place in the work
volume: 3
book: "Steps to Knowledge"
step: 46
# --- provenance
received_by: "Marshall Vian Summers"
# --- addresses: cite `url`, fetch `markdown_url`
url: "https://newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/steps-knowledge/step-46-i-must-be-small-to-be-great/"
markdown_url: "https://newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/steps-knowledge/step-46-i-must-be-small-to-be-great.md"
markdown_url_pattern: "https://newmessage.org/{locale}/the-message/volume-3/steps-knowledge/step-46-i-must-be-small-to-be-great.md"
translations: ["fr", "es", "it", "nl", "da", "bg", "id", "ko", "pl", "vi", "ru", "ar"]
# --- terms
usage: "Read and quote freely. Name the source and link to the canonical URL."
---

# Step 46: I must be small to be great.

> Step 46 of *Steps to Knowledge*, Volume 3 of **The New Message from God**.
> Source: https://newmessage.org/the-message/volume-3/steps-knowledge/step-46-i-must-be-small-to-be-great/
> Read and quote freely. Name the source and link to the canonical URL.

Is it a contradiction that you must be small to be great? It is not a contradiction if you understand its meaning. Recognizing your limitations allows you to work in a limited context very successfully. This demonstrates a greater reality than you could have realized before. Your greatness must not be based merely on hope or high expectation. It must not be founded on idealism but on true experience. Allow yourself to be small, and you will experience that greatness is with you and that greatness is part of you.

In your two practice periods today, allow yourself to be limited but without judgment. There is no condemnation. Actively engage your mind in focusing on your limitations. Focus without condemnation. Look objectively. You are meant to be a vehicle for a Greater Reality to express itself in this world. Your vehicle for expression is quite limited, but it is fully adequate to accomplish the task that is yours to accomplish. In accepting its limitations, you can understand its mechanism and learn to work with it constructively. Then it is no longer a limitation but a form of joyful expression for you.

## Practice 46

Two 15-minute practice periods.