Humility … What Does it Mean, Really?

Humility, what does it mean, really? 

I struggle with this question often, but let me tell you, ever since I started asking God for humility (I wrote about wanting more of HIM here) the Lord has been quickly chipping away at my pride.

Oh my, be careful what you ask for! It’s been good, but hard. The Lord has been showing me through various trials, His Word, and through other people how He defines humbleness. He’s been showing me how to better take control of my emotions and what it means to be a woman of soul integrity.

One of the first trials that came my way was having to put my writing aside in January to focus on someone that decided to hack into this blog and steal my entire database including the design, content, and images. I noticed something was off shortly after I wrote my last post, Jesus … My New Year’s Resolution.

It’s been a headache, friends.

My desire was to have a few posts up last month, but instead, I spent most of January trying to correct all of the issues created by this hacker. I’ve had to ditch my old blog design and quickly find a new one so that the site could remain functional. There’s still many things I have people emailing me about, especially recipes they haven’t been able to access, but all-in-all, my site has been secured and, praise the Lord, everything seems to be running normally.

I was very angry at the time, but truth be told, there was nothing I could do about it. The Lord calmed my heart and gave me an, eh, it is what it is attitude. With all of the bad things that happened God showed me some of the positive things that have come out of this fiasco as well.

• I’ve met some really kind people willing to immediately stop their own work to help me. That was humbling.
• The Lord reminded me of my amazing community of online friends that were able to jump in and steer me in the right direction right away.
• The Lord showed me the love my husband and children have for me and my work. They were very patient with the disruption in our normal schedule and gave me all the time I needed to get things back up and running.
• I’ve moved to a new layout design with a fresh new look … and direction.

Take that hacker! Jesus gave me an amazing tribe and you can’t steal that!

Finally, with all of this behind me, I wanted to share with you a passage in scripture where God showed me something about humility. Let’s dive into Matthew 15 …

Matthew 15:21-28

A Gentile Shows Her Faith

²¹ Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” ²³ But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” ²⁴ But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” ²⁶ But He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” ²⁷ And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

When I read this passage in scripture, the Lord spoke to me in a mighty way. Most of us know this passage in scripture as the Gentile woman that had faith.

During this time, Jesus was seeking a time to rest and teach his disciples, so they departed Jewish territory and crossed into the region of Tyre and Sidon in Canaan. The Canaanites were known for their paganism and idolatrous ways so there was always conflict between them and the Jewish people.

In verse 22, this Canaanite woman cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed”

In that verse you can see that this Canaanite woman addressed Jesus as the rightful king over a nation that had conquered her own. She came to Him as a humble servant in faith.

In verse 23 it goes on to say that He didn’t answer her. To top that off, his disciples were urging Him to send her away.

In verse 24 we learn that Jesus didn’t send her away. Instead he said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Okay, let’s go over this. This poor woman has a demon possessed child. She lives in Canaan but has been hearing all about this Jesus that performs miracles and can heal. When she found out that this Jesus was in Canaan, she set aside all of her pride, humbly came before Him, acknowledged Him as the son of David, whom we know annihilated her own people, because she had faith in this man.

And He tells her no.

This woman didn’t get hot, point her finger at Him and say, “Oh no you didn’t!” No, in verse 25, it says that she worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

What was His response?

In verse 26 Jesus said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

This is where the Lord totally convicted my heart. At this point, I would have been all over Jesus. I would have sassed my way up to Him and said, “Who do you think you are calling me and my child a little dog!” This Latina would have been hot!

Granted, Jesus did display a bit of gentleness as a little dog, in this passage, meant a lap dog, one that’s cared for. Still, my response would have gone down a little bit like this.

“Aren’t you Jeeesus! The one who loves, performs miracles, and heals? Aren’t you the one who is supposed to be saving people!” “You’re nothing but a … ,” yeah, I should probably stop there.

However, that is not how this woman responded.

In verse 27 she says, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

That is where I started to cry. She basically told Jesus, “You’re right, I’m a little dog, but we still need you.”

At that moment God spoke to me and said, “That’s humility.”

That is what it means to be humble. This poor Canaanite woman could have rightfully gotten very upset at Jesus. She could have blown up emotionally and declared how awful she was treated; instead, she lowered herself even more and acknowledged the need of a Savior.

And how did Jesus respond?

In verse 28, Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.”

Her daughter was healed.

I have a lot to work on. The one thing God has shown me is that true humility is saying I’m sorry even when I’m right. It’s being able to lay down my pride for the sake of someone else.

This year, my hearts desire is to implement humility. To lay aside my emotions, get on my knees, and choose love. Being strong willed with an ENFP personality, it’s going to mean choosing to not get emotionally unglued with people and; instead, to show kindness even when someone else has hurt my feelings.

It’s going to be a challenge … But God.

I’m excited to see how the Lord uses me this year as I choose humility.

Will you join me in pursuing humility?

So, what does humility mean to you? Please share with us in the comments below.