For a good part of my life, I have put humility in a box. I thought of humility as something that went hand-in-hand with pride. The more prideful I was about something(s), the more opportunity for humility. As a result, I thought humility was something to strive for or something I would be forced into if I got too prideful.

This Advent season, my eyes have been opened to an entirely different outlook on humility—what it is and its impact on my life. I’ve been learning that humility is way more than the narrow definition I’ve held onto all these years. Rather, it has everything to do with the posture of my heart, and how much room I am making for the Lord to do His work.

I know that humility is something that God has continuously refined in me because my heart needs consistent course correcting and steering. I have felt the pain of being humbled through pride and circumstances. My heart naturally veers in the direction of “I know what needs to get done” or “I can do all of this myself.” However, this season, God has been revealing places in my heart that I didn’t even know needed humbling! The parts of my life where my priorities show that my heart is steering further from Him rather than toward Him.

If you are anything like me, you know it is incredibly easy to get caught up in everything that must be done before Christmas. Adding to our to-do lists are countless obligations, family stresses, work deadlines, and the list goes on. There is this pressure for Christmas to be well-prepared for and perfect. To do all the things and to create the ideal Christmas memories. Ironic, isn’t it? When the Savior of our world arrived most imperfectly according to the world’s standards and expectations.

I know I’m not alone in this. So, where and when did our priorities shift? I’ve been pondering this lately as I sink into my Advent devotion. We’ve actually never been immune to it. After all, there was Martha, who was trying to make everything just perfect as she and her family welcomed Jesus into their home as their guest. “Prepare Him room” looked a lot different for her than it did for her sister, Mary. And Jesus cleared it up for a frustrated Martha— “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42). He didn’t tell her to stop cooking and do something else; after all, I’m sure things needed to get done. A meal had to be prepped. However, He challenged how she was feeling more than what she was doing. 

“The presence of stress in our lives has more to do with our hearts than our circumstances.”

This is a quote I recently came across that pierced me like a sword. It’s from “Emmanuel” — the Advent devotion I’m currently doing. The author, Ruth Chou Simons, challenges readers to think about where our hearts are bending in this season. She shares, “Do you already have the gift of salvation but need to release your ideas of self-assurance and return to your loving Savior in humility? (Emphasis mine.) Have you, amidst all the busyness of life, forgotten that Jesus desires your surrender more than your hard work or perfect track record?” Sadly, I find myself consistently slipping into memory lapse here. 

It takes a hefty amount of humility to realize that it doesn’t all depend on me. I won’t know the goodness of a Savior if I don’t realize how much I need a rescuer. And even if certain things getting done depend on me, it takes even more humility to realize that my heart posture as I do all the things is more important than how many of the things are getting crossed off the list and how fast they’re getting done.

From the beginning of time, more than anything in this world, Jesus wants our hearts. Simons continues, “As we surrender in this Advent season and seek Jesus, we’ll discover the miracle of Christmas: That while we wander on our windy roads to find Him, Jesus has already come to us. Our God didn’t wait for us to perfectly surrender before He came to perfectly save.” Amen to this. I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude for His mercy and grace as the Lord continuously course-corrects my heart! Because if it depended on me, I would be waiting a lifetime to make sure all the things were in order so that I may “prepare Him room,” never receiving the Good News that He has actually prepared me room.

I don’t want to lose this message of hope beyond Advent. I want to carry God’s gift of humility beyond this season.

Inviting God into my life will take ongoing humility.

It’s no coincidence that recently in “The Bible Recap”, an annual Bible reading plan I’ve been doing by Tara Lee Cobble, she reminded readers that seeking God’s will requires a lot of humility. It means we offer ourselves and our lives to God to resist getting caught up in the current of the culture around us and to seek God’s glory instead. That is how we will discern God’s will for our lives. She shares, “Not only do we have to resist thinking that we have better ideas than God, but we also have to resist thinking we’re better than other people. That is hard. We’re all different in our gifts, and in the measure of faith God has divinely assigned to us, but His plan is to work through us all individually yet in unity as well. We are both God-dependent and interdependent. Our gifts are given by Him and used to build up others.” 

Humbling myself will enable me to get to know God even better.

About creating her Bible study, “The Bible Recap”, Tara Lee Cobble shared, “I’d read through the Bible 10 times and felt fairly comfortable with the idea of teaching through it in a year. I cannot tell you how humbling it has been. Things I thought I knew that I had to unlearn…paragraphs and pages I typed out that I had to delete when I studied further; it’s been so humbling. And at the same time, it has been so beautiful. The more I get to know Him, the more I want to know Him better. I don’t always understand Him. And honestly, I’m grateful for that. A God who can fit inside my tiny brain is no God at all. I’m so glad He’s so knowable yet so unsearchable that I can always be knowing Him better yet never quite plumb the depths of Him.”  

Amen to that. Who doesn’t want that kind of growth with the Lord? I know I do!

It is my prayer that as I quickly approach Christmas, I can do so with a heart that is humbled before the Lord and preparing Him room for the coming year.

Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son to the world into the humblest of circumstances so that we may see and know His perfect love for us. I pray for a posture of humility that prepares You room not just during Advent but throughout the entire year. Thank You for Your mercy and grace when I stumble. May I walk with You in humility all my days. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Hallelujah and Amen.