Treasuring Jesus
Written by Haylee Bowden, published March 2021
If you’re anything like me, when you hear the phrase “treasure Jesus,” your mind begins to make a list of all the things you need to do to make your heart treasure Him. After all, the word “treasure” implies action, right? Or maybe you hear the phrase “treasure Jesus” and your heart begins to wonder what that even feels like, or how you get back to a place of treasuring Him above all else.
I’m with you... to be completely honest, this feels a little hard to write. I feel tired, and I feel caught in a cycle of shame when it comes to treasuring our King. As of late, my heart has been resistant to treasuring Jesus, and I feel like I have to overcompensate for a season of letting distraction and weariness win. Most days the “task” of reading my Bible hangs over my head, and I have to remind myself to pray. It seems like my “Treasuring Jesus To Do List” just keeps getting longer, and I’m often tempted to throw in the towel.
“What’s the point of reading today if I haven't read at all in the last week? Or month?”
However, God speaks clearly to the lie of believing we have to do more in order to treasure Him.
Over the last few days, I’ve been asking God what’s keeping me from treasuring Jesus. I know Jesus, I spend time with Jesus, I talk about Jesus… but I can do (and have been doing) all of those things without treasuring Him.
To treasure means to “hold or to keep as precious,” and there’s something hindering me from believing that Jesus is precious. I haven’t been believing that our Jesus is worth holding, worth lingering in His presence, worth sacrificing for... that He’s worth my whole life.
So, what’s hindering me?
As I asked, God responded to my question with a question of His own. He gently asked me, “Do you believe that Jesus treasures you?”
If you think about it, our whole life is a response to God’s pursuit of us. God is the great initiator, and He only really ever asks us to respond to Him. He pursues, and His people respond. This dynamic has existed since the beginning of time…
Do you remember the garden? Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, yet He pursued them. “Where are you?” he asked, awaiting a response (Gen. 3:9). What about the Israelites? While they grumbled and complained and cursed Him, He still pursued. He sent His presence to them as a pillar of fire, and He invited them to respond by following Him (Ex. 13:21). The very same thing happened when Jesus was born… Emmanuel, God with us came to earth, and we continually respond to our King with great shouts of joy (Matt. 2:2). And the ultimate pursuit… the cross. Jesus came, died for our sins, rose again, and He invites us to respond by surrendering our life to Him… the very thing that He did for us.
You see, we were created to respond to God. God’s people have been responding to Him for hundreds of years, and I think God is inviting us to respond to Him now by treasuring Him. What if treasuring Jesus was a direct response to how deeply we believe that He treasures us? Do you believe that Jesus treasures you?
Evidence that your King treasures you is written all throughout the scriptures, but let me specifically draw your attention to 1 Peter:
“9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Brother, Sister… Jesus holds you and keeps you as precious. He has chosen you. He has made you a royal priesthood. He has made you holy, and He has established you as His own possession. His blood has proven that you are of great value. You are worthy to be sought after, He loves being with you, and He will never leave you.
Do you believe that Jesus treasures you? I believe to the degree that we know we are treasured by Jesus is the degree to which our hearts will respond and treasure Him in return.
Don’t let your heart or mind wander to all of the things that you need to do to stir your heart to a place of treasuring Him. Instead, behold Him, and I guarantee that He will invite you to respond to Him. That, my friends, is treasuring Jesus.