“Precious” necessarily excludes most things. Something is precious because it is rare, set-apart, solitary, or uniquely valuable. Precious metals are not so-called because a particular culture thinks they are more valuable than dust or sand or iron. No, they are universally precious to all cultures and times because of some intrinsic rarity or value.

Our culture tends to slap on words without truly thinking about it. As a result, we’ve lost the meaning of words like ‘special’ and ‘awesome’ and ‘love.’ But we must retain categories in our minds so closed off and set apart that only ‘special’ or ‘precious’ can define them. A sloppy use of words devolves into sloppy feelings and beliefs.

When God’s Word uses the word precious, my ears should perk up. These are the things God deeply values, that are close to his heart. Should I not nurture an admiration and affection for them so that they become precious to me as well?

The following is just a glimpse into what scripture says is precious, gleaned from a book I am reading called The Precious Things of God by Octavius Winslow and some of my own word studies.

1. Christ is precious.

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

“In proportion as you thus deal with Christ, individually traveling to Him, living upon Him, living out of Him, dealing personally with Him as He deals personally with you, He will insinuate Himself in your regard, and will become glowingly precious to your soul.”[1]

2. Christ’s blood is precious

“With the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19)

“All salvation, all purity, all peace, all holiness, all hope, all heaven, is bound up in the atoning blood of Immanuel.”[2]

3. Christ’s promises are precious

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises” (2 Pet. 1:4)

“(The promises) are exceedingly precious, because of the source whence they originate. They are the throbbings of the infinite and deathless love of God. I cannot, with a weeping eye, light upon a precious promise, but the moment that I see it I behold my Father’s love exhibited and unveiled I read God’s heart in the promise. I seem to hear the gentle, tender accents of His voice; therefore, as the revelation of my Father’s love, the promises of God become exceedingly precious.”[3]

4. Faith that looks to Christ is precious

“The genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold” (1 Pet. 1:7, 2 Pet. 1:1)

“Precious, indeed, is that faith that leans upon God in adversity, that goes to Jesus in trial, and that repairs to the Spirit in sorrow. Precious faith, that finds a promise for every condition, a helper in every emergency, a soother for every sorrow, —that can hope against hope, taste a sweet disguised in every bitter, and see a bright light veiled by each dark cloud.”[4]

5. Christian martyrs are precious to Him

“Precious shall be their blood in his sight” (Ps. 72:14)

“The death of the saints is precious to the Lord, because their persons are precious to Him. We shall never fully know, though sounding its fathomless depths, and scaling its illimitable heights through eternity the love of God to His saints.”[5]

6. Christ’s people are precious to Him

“Since you were precious in my sight…” (Is. 43:4, Lam. 4:2)

“For the affection He bore us He voluntarily espoused our cause in eternity—bound Himself in an unalterable covenant to accomplish our redemption, and travailing in the greatness of His power and love, finished it. His love made Him willing to become incarnate, to assume our curse, to bear our sins, and to suffer and die in our stead. Rising from the dead, He completed our justification; and ascending up on high, He passed within the vail, ‘now to appear in the presence of God’ as our Advocate and Intercessor. There is no other object upon earth that engages the thoughts or fills the heart of Jesus but His people. His presence, invisible and noiseless, yet real and powerful, perpetually surrounds them.”[6]

7. God’s thoughts are precious

“How precious to me are your thoughts” (Ps. 139:17).

“Treasured up on the Divine Mind, they [God’s thoughts] repose in profound mystery until each circumstance in our daily life unfolds and makes them known, then we learn how real and how precious God’s thoughts of us are. There is not a moment, beloved of God, that the Lord is not thinking of you; nor is there a moment that He is not, in some form or other, embodying those thoughts in His gracious and providential dealings with you.”[7]

Amazingly, two uses of precious apply specifically to traits encouraged in us ladies!

8. A meek and quiet spirit is precious

“Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pet. 3:4).

9. The Proverbs 31 woman is precious

“(she) … is more precious than rubies”

In a world where traits of independence and ambition are so highly valued, don’t you think these traits of the godly woman deserve our focus if they are counted in that small and exclusive list of the things precious to God’s heart?

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[1] Octavius Winslow, The Precious Things of God (Louisville, KN: GHL Publishing, 2015), 9.

[2] Ibid., 61.

[3] Ibid., 55.

[4] Ibid., 22.

[5] Ibid., 150-51.

[6] Ibid., 86.

[7] Ibid., 44.