Priming the Pump

In rural Appalachia, old homesteads still have cast-iron hand pumps standing over deep wells. Anyone who has used one knows the frustrating secret: you cannot draw water from a dry pump. The leather gaskets inside need moisture to create a seal. Without that seal, the handle just whooshes air. So you do something that feels foolish — you take your last jar of water, the water you carried from a neighbor's house, and you pour it down into the pump. You give away what you already have in order to access what lies beneath.

The first few pumps still feel empty. Your arm burns. You wonder if you just wasted your only water. Then comes a gurgle, a sputter, and suddenly cold, clean water rushes up from thirty feet underground — more than you could carry in a month of trips. The well was full the whole time. The abundance was always there, waiting beneath your feet. It just needed someone willing to pour in first.

This is the extraordinary invitation of Malachi 3:10. The Lord Almighty — the One who owns every aquifer, every ocean, every drop — says, "Test Me in this." Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and watch Me throw open the floodgates of heaven. He is not asking us to create the blessing. He is asking us to prime the pump. The reservoir of His provision runs deeper than we can fathom. Our giving does not generate God's generosity — it positions us to receive what was always there, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing.