When I meet new people I experience a lot of anxiety. It is not because I dislike meeting new people—people are one of the things I am most passionate about, but I fear that I make a bad first impression. A few weeks ago, I was preparing to attend an event where I would be meeting some important people. The anxiety I felt leading up to that point was overwhelming. I spent a lot of time in prayer prior to it, just to saturate myself in the Lord’s presence & finally I decided to pray over my insecurity of bad impressions. The Lord immediately spoke this to me very clearly, the way a Father would: “You are my delicately planned treasured possession—I did not make a mistake when I created you”. At this point I began to weep because I was reminded of how much my Daddy loves me & how proud He is of me even when I let my insecurities get in the way.
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine." Exodus 19:5
Over the past few weeks, I have been preparing music for a few upcoming weddings. One wedding is relatively soon & the couple has asked me to sing & play “My Beloved” by Kari Jobe at a point in the ceremony. The words in the song speak of the husband & wife romance between God & His people—something that should be mirrored in the relationship between husbands & wives on earth.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells two stories describing how much we are worth to Him—the first of a man who discovered a hidden treasure in a field, he went & sold everything he had to buy this land & make the treasure his own. The second is of a merchant in search of pearls, he comes to find one pearl that has “great value” & he sells all of his belongings to buy this pearl. (Matthew 13:44-46) To the man who bought the field, the treasure was so valuable that he protected it until he could make it his own. To the merchant, he found one pearl that caused all other pearls to fail in comparison & possessing that one pearl meant more than all of his securities in life.
Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, wrote: “Our most basic emotional need is not to fall in love, but to be genuinely loved by another—to know that love grows out of reason & choice, not instinct. I need to be loved by someone who chooses to love me—who sees in me something worth loving.”
God loves us in this way. He chooses to love us & His expression of that love was to send His Son to earth as a man to die a horrible death on a cross to redeem us & call us back to Him. He sees in us something of value—something to be treasured. He will go to any lengths to express His love for us, all we need to do is accept His grace & choose to love Him in return. We are His treasured possession.
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