Precious

God is as precious to you, as much you value time with Him

From time to time we read the headlines about people willing to pay a lot of money for things which are valuable to them. Someone once bought the most expensive diamond in the world…

QUESTION: How much do you think they paid for it?

In May 2016, Lucara Diamond Corporation (Canadian mining company) sold a huge Constellation diamond for $63 million. It was the highest price ever paid for a rough gemstone. For comparison, an average toy store costs about $65 thousand, which means that one could buy almost 1,000 toy stores for the cost of this diamond!

With the diamond, everything is clear: it is a gem; but there are truly “strange” purchases. One person payed a lot of money to purchase a photograph of a river.

QUESTION: How much do you think the buyer paid for this photo?

The most expensive photo in the world depicts the German Rhine River. The author was a world-renowned artist Andreas Gursky. This photograph was sold on November 8, 2012 at an auction for $4.3 million. For comparison, an iPad costs about $600, so that amount of money could buy such tablets for 7,000 children, which is as many as five big public schools!

What do these stories tell us? That people are willing to pay for what is valuable to them. The Bible says that Christ Himself is precious to Christians:

“Therefore he is precious to you who believe” (1 Peter 2:7)

QUESTION: Why is Christ so greatly precious to Christians?

Firstly, because they love Him, and the one you love becomes the most important.

Secondly, the time spent with Jesus is important because the earth and everything on it will burn one day (even all the toy stores), but only the relationship with Jesus will remain forever.

QUESTION: How can I know today if God is precious to me or not?

Judas betrayed Christ for thirty coins. This was his price for Christ. And each of us sets our own “price” for Christ. First, if Jesus is really precious to you, you will find time to fellowship with Him in prayer and Bible reading. You will find time for it even if you are very busy — nothing would be able to stop you.

Secondly, this principle works in the opposite direction as well. If you have little contact with God, then admit it to yourself that He has little value to you. The amount of time spent in fellowship with God and serving Him accurately shows us whether we value God or not.

ILLUSTRATION: Here’s a story about values.

The city of Pompeii was destroyed in A. D. 79 by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. During archaeological excavations in 1861, the remains of many people were found in a solidified layer of ash. The petrified ash vividly preserved the last moments of the townspeople’s lives. A well-preserved female skeleton was found in one of the rooms during excavations. Most likely, she was the mistress of the home. As she was dying, she thought she would save her favorite jewelry chest. She gripped it tightly in her hand. Scattered around her were also gold earrings, bracelets and necklaces.[1]

Everything that this woman considered precious did not help her in the last moments of her life! But during the same excavations there also were found silhouettes of people who died hugging each other.

ILLUSTRATION (FOR TEENAGERS): Picture yourself walking down the street. You look down and notice a penny that someone lost. It lies on the dirty asphalt, right in the middle of the square in everyone’s plain view, sparkling brightly in the sun.

QUESTION: What will you do?

Most likely, you will pass by, because your internal “scales of values” show underweight. In a split second, you figuratively put a penny on one side of the scale, and several facts on the other: the opinion of other people, the effort to stop and bend down (you might be in a hurry), a thought of getting dirt and germs on your hands, and so on. Eventually your internal scales make their own verdict, and you simply pass by. Only a few people in whose eyes a penny has value, will stop and pick it up.

But let us get back to the ones who passed by. This person goes on a bit further, and now it’s not a penny on the ground, but a paper banknote. At this point, something miraculous happens! All of a sudden there’s strength, there’s vigor, there’s enthusiasm to stop and bend down, and what the others think becomes much less important, and if it’s a $100 banknote then even sciatica ceases to be a problem, let alone dirty asphalt or puddles!

Maybe this illustration made you smile, but indeed it is our values that determine our behavior. And if God is truly precious to us, then our daily schedule will tell our friends about it without us saying a word.

PRAYER: Worship God as you reflect on the value He has in your live. Thank Him for the most valuable thing in the Christian life — the Lord Jesus and personal relationship with Him.

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[1] Taken from Eugene J. Dwyer’s Pompeii’s Living Statues: Ancient Roman Lives Stolen from Death.