Everyone loves to discover a secret!   I remember the first time my one-year old son and I played catch with “the invisible ball.”  As we pretended to throw the ball back and forth – his eyes lit up because he had discovered a new secret called imagination.

Imagine the heightened sense of excitement as Jesus told his disciples that they were being given the secrets of God’s kingdom.  In the very next sentence, Jesus explained how, when our heart is ready to receive, these insights will flow into abundance.  Matthew 13:10-12

Note that Jesus uses the words secrets, insights and abundance almost synonymously. Then notice the secret – sandwiched inside these great words. . . Having our heart ready to receive.   The Bible repeatedly speaks (more than 700 times) about having our hearts ready for God.  Like the law of gravity, the law of “having our hearts ready for God” is the secret recipe of living an abundant life.

Yet despite this common sense idea, very few people benefit from the immense power of it – and that is why it is still a secret.   

Let’s look at a practical way to having your hearts ready for God.  Start by recognizing that your day by day little choices really form your habits, which ultimately forms the heart of your character.  So considering that your life is probably upside down busy, ask yourself about these little choices:

• Do you say prayers at meals?
• When you wake-up do you acknowledge and ask God to be with you through the day?
• Are you consciously thankful for your blessings throughout the day?
• Do you say prayers with your children every night?
• Do you spend quality time alone with God – even if it is just a few minutes each day?

If you truly want to have a heart that is ready to receive the secrets of God’s insights and abundance, we must look at our day by day little choices.  What an amazing secret indeed!