Precious Things

What is precious to you?  There are a lot of things people claim to be precious to them.  Most people believe a newborn baby is to be a precious thing.  Fine jewelry is considered precious.  A man's beautiful wife is a precious thing.  She is something that he holds dear to his heart.  I guess there are a number of things I can name that people consider precious.  WHAT does the word precious mean?  Precious is a something of great value, or high price, something dear and greatly loved.  In Greek, precious means polytimos from the root polus.  Polus means much, great in time, price, and honor.  This literally means of great price as in very high on a monetary scale, extremely valuable, or much revered.
It is a word some might think would more likely be used by ladies, but Peter is very fond of 'precious' using it some 7 times (not all are "polytimos") in both his epistles.  Jesus used polytimos describing the "kingdom of heaven" which he declared is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46).
Jesus pictures salvation as something hidden from most people but so very precious that people who have it revealed to them all willing to give up all they have to possess it. 
How "precious" is genuine faith to the Refiner's Eye Peter first mentioned the word precious dealing with faith he says " that the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that persisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.  Peter is saying that our faith is more precious than gold or that the trial of that faith is more valuable than gold. 
WHY compare our faith to gold?  In the ancient world, gold was considered the most expensive and rarest of all metals.  It was used in the worship of the Gods and was very prominent in the temple of Jerusalem, where the true God was worshipped.  Emperors and heroes were known for their lavish use of gold.  Under Augustus and Nero (the prince of the Roman gold coin), the Aureus, was worth 45 denar.  A denarius was considered to be a day's wage.  All of this indicates that a tried, genuine faith is extremely valuable! The known quantity in this statement is the preciousness of gold-- a genuine faith is much more precious than that.  God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless he has a specific plan by which great blessings an come out of the difficulty.  According to Peter Marshall, "Fire is the test of gold, adversity  of strong men."  The word trial is the Greek worf for tested "dokimazo from dokimos means tested, proved or approved, tried as metals by fire and thus purified from techomai to accept or receive means to assay, to test, to prove,to verify, to discern, or to approve.  Dokimazo involves not only testing but determining the genuineness or value of an even or object.  That which has been tested is demonstrated to be genuine and trustworthy.  Peter mentions several different things that are precious things, the precious blood of Jesus (Peter 1:19).  Jesus is the cornerstone (Peter 2:4-6)  II Peter 4 talks about the exceeding great and precious promises that are given to us by His divine power these are the things that Peter look on as precious.  How precious are they to you?