There are four very nice promises about receiving when we give.

• Malachi 3:10 …. if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
• Pro 3:9,10  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
• 2 Corinthians 9:6   But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
• Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

These are four illustrations of the same truth: as you give, you receive back much more than you gave.

• The first promise tells us it will be like the windows of heaven opened up for us.
• The second says our barns, savings accounts, and wine presses shall be full.
• The third tells us it takes a while to see the crop we are producing by following these principles.
• The fourth tells us some of the prosperity will come from people giving back to us.

So we learn that the prosperity can come from people giving back to us or God opening the windows of heaven. That it is a slow growth process like planting and reaping. And that it will be like a barn bursting at the seams or the windows of heaven opening to us.

When we read about the windows of heaven being opened and blessings pouring out, I think sometimes we feel that if we give, God will immediately shower gold coins down upon our head. Not seeing this come to pass right away can cause some to feel that giving does not work. But when God uses the illustration of sowing, we know that it takes a while once the seed is sown for the harvest to take place.

There is a rule in life that says that things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. If A equals D, and B equals D and C equals D, then A is equal to B, which is equal to C.

These four promises simply show different aspects of how we receive back from God for our giving.

Very few things in life happen instantly. Prosperity is growth over time like most of the rest of things in God’s creation. Children take years to grow up. Crops take months to grow. Our prosperity is not in our paycheck. It is in what we do with part of the check.

We need this slow growth process like a crop to learn how to handle the increase in finances. Our minds need time to grow accustomed to handling larger amounts of money, to learn to be good stewards of it, and to learn how to invest or trade with it to see it grow.

According to Dave Ramsey, if you put $35.00 per week away in a savings account, and invested it in a good growth stock mutual fund at 15%, you could retire in 40 years with $890,000.00 to $1.5 million. This could be done on a federal minimum wage. A very nice slow growth process.

If you worked at federal minimum wage for 40 years and retired a millionaire, could you feel like God opened the windows of heaven?

Prosperity is built over time rather than being a cash machine whereby we give and God then gives us rent money. This is not to say He will not or could not do that, but we need to take a long term perspective on prosperity. It is not how much you make, but what you do with what you make. Do you spend it all or save part? It is a huge difference down the road.

So as you give and save, remember to be patient. You don’t reap the day after you sow. But it will come back to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over so that over time it will be like the windows of heaven have been opened to you.

This is another part of The Prosperous Life.