The evangelist said, “You are God’s treasure.” As I sat in the audience among several hundred believers, I thought, “Is that really true?”
Just like so many other believers, I had a hard time believing that I was valuable to God. I knew my past and everything I had done wrong. Therefore, I doubted God truly loved me. I struggled to believe God valued me.
Many Christians suffer from self-hatred, insecurity, feelings of rejection, and loneliness. This is because of their failing to comprehend how God sees them and how He feels about them. How they see themselves obstructs their view of how God sees them.
Let’s look at what God says about how He views us. God loves ALL people, but only the believers are His treasure.
You Are God’s Treasure
But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvelous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. (1 Peter 2:9 TPT Emphasis is mine.)
Not only are we God’s treasure, but we are also His chosen treasure. From all of His magnificent creation, God chose us to be His treasure. He made His choice before the foundation of the world.
Even though He knew we would be imperfect people, He chose us to be His special treasure. Jesus was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world as the answer to our imperfection. God wanted us from the beginning even though He knew that we would do things that displease Him.
Just think, because we were God’s special treasure from before creation, this means He made the universe and the earth for us. He designed heaven and earth to serve us until the creation of the new heaven and earth.
God knowingly made the earth with everything we need. Animals, plants, minerals, metals, and beauty. Our needs are met because he prepared the earth specially for us.
Why Are We God’s Treasure?
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. (Genesis 1:26–27 CSB)
We find the answer to why are we God’s treasure in the first chapter of Genesis. We are the only being in all of God’s creation that were created in His image and likeness. Not the animals, or even the angels, are created in His image. Only mankind.
Human beings were created to have authority and dominion over all the creation. We were set apart from the rest of creation because we are a spirit like God. We are a spirit, have a soul, and live in a body. (see 1 Thessalonian 5:23)
Therefore, it is having a spirit that sets us apart and makes us unique. Our spirit is the real us. It is because of our spirit that we can commune and fellowship with God on an equal basis. We are NOT equal to God, but we are able to talk and share with Him through our spirit.
We can speak and command with words in the same manner as God. In fact, we were created to speak out of our spirit. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 12:34? “For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” (NLT see also: Luke 6:45)
Besides having a spirit, we also have a free will, which puts us in the God-class of beings. We are not gods, but we are in the God-class. Angels were not created to have a free will. This is why there is no redemption for satan and the fallen angels.
What Does It Mean To Be God’s Treasure?
First of all, I want to clarify one point. God loves all people. (see John 3:16) But all people are not His treasure. Only His people are His treasure. It started first with the Israelites.
For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6 CSB)
The Israelites were God’s first special possession and treasure. Then it carried over to all the believers in Jesus Christ.
But you are a chosen race,,, a royal priesthood,, a holy nation,, a people for his possession,, so that you may proclaim the praises,, of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-11 CSB)
God’s treasure is those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. All people are loved by God, but only believers are His treasured possession.
Being God’s treasure means that we are greatly loved. God showed His love for all people by sending Jesus (see John 3:16). To believers He shows amazing grace and compassion through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
God’s grace shows in everything He does for believers. We can see His grace in times of trial and tribulation, illness and disease, and any rough time in our life. His grace is shown in the little blessings such as a close parking lot in the rain, all green traffic lights when you are late, and in the kind word given at the right moment.
Of course, grace is shown in the big blessings such as needed money received at just the right time, healing when there is no medical hope, and a bag of groceries on the front porch when there is nothing in the pantry. Being God’s treasure is a special thing.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! ( Ephesians 2:4-5 CSB)
God’s Treasure Is where His Heart Is
God’s treasure is where His heart is. How do I know this? Because God said so. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 CSB) Jesus is speaking of a spiritual principle that has existed since before creation.
Scripture reveals that He delights in us:
The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17 CSB)
Just think, God not only rejoices over us; He sings because of His delight in us. The Creator of heaven and earth and all that is on the earth rejoices and sings over us! Not only that, but God, the Holy Spirit, is among us all the time.
There is nothing which says this happens because you are perfect and sinless. He loves us because we are His children. We remain His children, even amid our mistakes.
We are the apple of His eye. David said in Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of Your eye…” (NKJV) The “apple of His eye” expresses His pride and fondness for us.
You Are Known By God
But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. (1 Corinthians 8:3 CSB)
Do you realize know God knows you? He knows you personally. He knows what you like, dislike, what you like to do and even your favorite color. God is not far away, but dwells in you if you are a Christian. He knows every intimate detail of your life.
His greatest desire is to take you from where you are today and mold you into the person He says you are in His Word. Not the best version of yourself or your best life now. What the Lord wants for you is so much greater than that.
God wants to lead you on to the path of being all that you can be for him. He knows what challenges, trials, and tribulations you will face throughout your whole life. If allowed to, God will prepare you to face every one of those challenges and overcome them.
He knows every mistake and awful choice you will ever make and can make allowances ahead of time to overcome them. God isn’t leading us down a primrose path. He is leading and guiding us to live as the image of Him.
Then, His light of love will shine through us for other people to see.
You can learn more about being known by God in my article: Want to Experience God? How to Know You Are Big In God’s Heart
You Are God’s Building
As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God— you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5 CSB Emphasis is mine.)
We are God’s spiritual house, both collectively and individually. As the Church, we are God’s house and as an individual we are His house. God is remodeling each of us so that we become His image to the world. He makes us so we present more of Him each year to everyone we interact with.
God is also rearranging the inside of us too. He hangs love as the focal point in every room. Then He arranges all the fruit of the Spirit around love. As every year passes, each fruit of the spirit increases inside us. Finally, the Lord brings compassion in as flooring so that we can walk in it. Yes, He is carefully working with each of us to be a building that attracts other to Him.
You Are God’s Workmanship
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10 CSB)
Each of us is God’s workmanship. He is crafting each of us to do the good works He prepared ahead of time to do. He prepared good works for us to do because of this being a fallen world. The god of this world is satan. This world’s culture, politics, and society reflects satan and his ways.
When we are born again, saved in the common vernacular, we are removed from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Light – the Kingdom of His Son. (see Colossians 1:13)
Then we become ambassadors of Christ, doing the ministry of reconciliation in this world. (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-21) We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled with God.”
What Are Good Works?
But what about the good works? What are they? To answer this, let me ask you a question. What good works did Jesus do? Luke tells us in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.” (CSB)
Considering what Acts 10:38 says, what are the good works Jesus did? One that is directly mentioned is healing. Some of the other good works were casting out demons, teaching, preaching, giving to the poor.
It would seem to me these must be the good works God prepared for us to do also.
You Are Not Only God’s Treasure; You Are His Coworker
For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9 CSB)
It amazes me to think that God chose human beings, emotionally fragile and weak in character, to be coworkers with Him? Why would He do this? He tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 CSB) Therefore He reveals His power through us.
Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7 CSB)
When we do what nonbelievers are unable to do, then they realize it is because of God’s power and not because of our own power. And it doesn’t have to be miracles. It could be because we love someone that is unlovely or we stay calm under tremendous pressure.
This brings glory to God, and that is why we are on the earth.
The Challenge
Search the scriptures for more passages that talk about us being God’s treasure. Meditate upon the scriptures in this article and the ones you find. Let them get deep into your heart and allow the image of being God’s treasure to grow on the inside of you.
You can learn more about how to meditate and its benefits in my article: Meditate Scripture | Your Next Essential Step To A Successful Life
Confess this daily:
I am God’s treasured possession. He chose me long before He created anything. I may be weak, but with God’s power, I am strong. I am empowered and equipped to do the good works God created for me to do. My purpose on earth is to cause others to glorify God.
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