In Matthew 11, John the Baptist is in prison, about to be beheaded. He sends messengers to ask Jesus a very important question: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).

In a very compelling answer, Jesus points to the miracles He performed: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

In a sense, Jesus was saying, “Yes, I am He. I am the One. The scriptures said I would do these things. Go tell John that you’ve seen me fulfill these prophecies.”

What amazes me about this list is the last miracle. It stands out to me more than any other. You see, today mankind cannot do the first five miracles. Even with our latest medical advances, technology and breakthroughs, we cannot restore sight to the blind.

There are millions who are confined to wheelchairs without our ability to help them walk again. Leprosy still exists today, but perhaps more importantly, we have yet to cure the leprosy of our age, AIDS. While some advances have helped those with poor hearing differentiate some sounds, for millions, the world is a silent place. And despite our best efforts, we cannot raise the dead.

But then there’s the last miracle: “And the good news is preached to the poor.” Wait a minute; we can do that! In fact, we are doing that! I think this is one way we can all be Christlike.

At Compassion, we have one thing in common: We are all miracle workers because we are all part of this ministry that, around the globe, is preaching the good news to the poor.

You. A miracle worker. Who would’ve known, huh?

“Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.’” –Matthew 11:4–5, NIV

Prayer: Lord, thank You for giving us this one miracle we can perform — to preach the gospel to the poor! May we always cherish this opportunity to be Christlike. Thank You for allowing us to be part of a ministry that is one — on purpose, with a unified heart for children trapped in poverty.

Read all the One in Spirit devotionals. 

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

How do you define a miracle? I heard once that it is “a divine or supernatural invasion into human affairs.” Pretty simple explanation, don’t you think?

I find myself praying for miracles every day and they all look and sound quite different. Some are for healing for friends who are sick. Some are for perfect provision for families. Some are for little, personal things like …  returned e-mails. Perhaps that seems trivial or petty, but there has been an e-mail I have been waiting for, hoping for really, for months now. At this point, it would seem like a miracle to get a response.

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but here at Compassion many people believe that we can eliminate extreme poverty in our generation. Let’s put a little more structure in that statement, shall we?

To eliminate means to remove, to expel, to exclude, even to murder.

How big is the problem of extreme poverty? Three billion people worldwide and 1 billion children deep.

You might think we’re “drunk on the spirit,” and that our goal is unrealistic, completely irrational or even not Biblical. I will be honest with you, I thought it was out of reach, too. Truly, I thought it to be an impossible task.

But lately, both personally and professionally, God has been asking me this simple question — “Do you have any idea who I am? I know you think you do. But do you believe that I am the God of the Bible? The one who parts seas, makes rivers in the desert, and brings bread from boulders?

“Do you believe I am a God of signs and wonders? Do you believe I am as big as you tell others I am? Do you believe I still perform miracles, Meredith?”

I wonder if I am the only one who preaches bigger than they pray. I used to be Baptist, which means I get excited when I talk about Jesus and I get loud when I read Scripture. You could say I’m passionate.

But I also play my prayer life safe. I don’t pray big prayers because I’m scared they’re too lofty, too much. And in the event that God would say “No,” to one of my astronomical prayers, I don’t want to be disappointed. So I don’t even risk asking.

Here’s the thing — this is not how we are instructed to pray or live. As Christ kneeled in the garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Lord to take the cup of sacrifice from Him. God said no. But Jesus obeyed, did as He was told, and saved humankind for all time.

We, as believers, are called to defend the poor and needy, to advocate for the oppressed, to fight injustice. If we do as we are told, if we obey God’s call and mandate on our lives, we would be crazy to think that He won’t show up in a big way, being faithful to what He has promised to do.

He cannot deny Himself — and if He is present in your soul, making Himself manifest in your thoughts, words and actions, then He will not deny you or your request.

Pray bigger with me. Pray for miracles. Pray for signs and wonders.

Pray that extreme poverty would come to an end in our lifetime. And after you pray, do something.

It’s not radical …  it’s Biblical.

Editor’s note: Extreme poverty is the severest state of poverty. People living in extreme poverty cannot meet their most basic needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation and health care.

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day, and estimates that more than 1 billion people currently live under these conditions and another 2 billion survive on less than U.S. $2 per day.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” — Matthew 11:1-5, NKJV

Jesus, when asked for proof that He is the King of Kings, that He is the promised Savior, responds by listing the miracles He has performed.

The last item Jesus lists in His response to John’s messengers is the one that seems, for me anyway, to stick out the most — “the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

What? Why lump this in with the other things? Surely the poor hearing the gospel can’t be equated with giving sight to the blind or life to the dead?

But Jesus responds to this important question by listing the ways that He has fulfilled the prophecies written about Him.

The Old Testament tells us that the Savior will bring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf.

The Old Testament tells us that the Messiah will raise the dead and help the lame walk. And it tells us that the Messiah will bring salvation to the poor.

Folks, don’t overlook this important line in Jesus’ answer. It’s not there by mistake. It’s not there as an afterthought.

This is Jesus’ way of telling us that it is divine to bring the gospel to the poor. And it’s the one miracle that we can perform today.

If you think about it, bringing the gospel to the poor IS bringing life to the dead, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. This is the miracle that changes lives for eternity!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Jesus was in Bethsaida, when a group of people brought a blind man to him. The crowd begged Jesus to touch the man. So Jesus took the man by the hand and led him to a place out of town. There, our Lord spit on the man’s eyes and asked him if he saw anything.

“He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’” – Mark 8:24 (NIV)

So Jesus puts His hands on the man’s eyes a second time … and this time, the man’s sight was restored fully.

Why? Why did it take a “do-over” for Jesus to heal this man?

Surely we’re not supposed to believe that our Savior’s power was waning. Surely we’re not supposed to believe that His strength wasn’t enough the first time around.

So why did the man not see clearly after the first attempt? Was it in the formula?

Other times, Jesus put mud on a blind man’s eyes. Did He simply forget the mud? Did He not say the right words?

No, I don’t think the answer can be found in any fault of a perfect Son of God … but rather in the fault of the mortal man.

Whenever I have these kinds of questions about Scripture, I usually try to put the story into a perspective that I can relate to.

In what ways has God had to show Himself to me more than once before I “got it”? How many times has my Heavenly Father shown me the path I should take, only for me to stumble in my own direction without clarity, before finally crying out to Him a second time, “I still can’t see, Lord!”?

Oh … too many to list here!

So perhaps Jesus was waiting on the man’s faith to grow. Perhaps the man needed to see a little before he had the faith that he could see it all.

What does this have to do with poverty?

Well, I think sometimes the Church is like the blind man whose vision hasn’t quite been restored. We’ve got some of the basics down, but we don’t fully appreciate the severity of this global pandemic. 

The Church, I believe, has been content with seeing “men walking like trees” instead of clearly seeing the face of poverty.

A recent Barna survey I got my hands on, but which I can’t find online, shows that 57 percent of pastors polled in the U.S. believe their church should do more to address global poverty. Those same pastors, on average, taught only one message last year on poverty. No wonder we don’t see it clearly!

But I believe God wants His people to see poverty for what it really is.

It’s more than money. It’s more than social status. It’s more than food or water. God wants His Church to understand that poverty kills hope. It steals dreams. Poverty robs children of their potential — and therefore robs us of what they have to offer.

Maybe it’s time for a ”do-over.” Maybe it’s time to go back to your senior pastor or your missions pastor and help them see beyond the surface issues of poverty. Maybe it’s time your congregation took  a second look at the poor.

Now, if Jesus had never touched the man a second time, it still would have been a miracle. The man went from not seeing at all, to seeing blurry images. That’s still impressive. But that’s not enough.

Jesus wanted the man to see clearly. Likewise, I believe God wants His people to have a clear understanding of poverty — and what He has commanded His Church to do about it.

We’ve created some wonderful resources to show you what poverty really is. I hope you’ll spend some time looking at them. And then use them to give your church a “do-over.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Last summer, heavy rains poured into the village where 12-year-old Arpita lives. The ground, already saturated from previous rains, left nowhere else for the waters to go … so the entire village flooded. Muddy water, one foot deep, filled Arpita’s home.

When you live in extreme poverty, access to clean water is hard to come by, but filthy water seems to make its way to your door with great ease.

Arpita was sitting on her raised bed, getting dressed for the day. While she fussed with the fabric of her frock, she clinched an open safety pin between her teeth. Suddenly, the pin wiggled in her mouth, and Arpita found herself choking. The pin was far enough down that her throat’s natural reaction was to swallow.

The sharp edge of the pin scraped along the inside of her esophagus. Arpita ran to her mother and father to tell them what had happened.

pin made its way all the way down to her stomach. Arpita’s mother was worried it could do severe damage. She had Arpita drink water. She rubbed her little girl’s tummy. But nothing could make the pain go away. She decided to take Arpita to the hospital.

Arpita’s father went to the Compassion project, asking the pastor to have the children pray. An odd request, considering Arpita’s parents weren’t Christians. But they still believed in the power of prayer.

The children prayed. Fervently. Tears streamed down their little faces as they pleaded for God to rescue their friend and classmate.

Meanwhile, Arpita’s doctor performed an x-ray of Arpita’s stomach. Their worst fears were confirmed. The pin was open … and it had lodged in the lining of her stomach.

Short of a miracle, the doctors were going to have to perform a rather risky surgery to open up Arpita’s stomach and remove the pin.

But our God is the God of miracles.

Watch the video to see how the story plays out.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates