“I was pregnant with my first child when the doorbell rang. The landlord sent his property manager to tell us that either we buy the house or we had to move. The townhouse was quite lovely, and I knew there was no way in heaven or in hell we could afford it, or have the credit for it. So, with a baby in my belly, we packed up and began our search for somewhere to stay. We settled nicely into an apartment, and I was completely content. I just wanted to have somewhere to lay my head, and I was sick of moving.
It was a Friday evening when we finished unpacking the last box, but we dared not miss prayer service, even as tired as we were. Before ending, my mother-in-law said, ‘Oh, Bishop, I forgot. Ganelle just moved into her apartment today. Pray that God blesses them with a house to buy and call their own.’ The Bishop then called us up, told us to lift up our hands, and he said, ‘You guys will have a house in less than 90 days.’
I laughed. I knew my credit. I knew our bank account. I knew our salaries at the time. And although God causes storms to cease and winds to behave, put the moon in the sky and all that good stuff, there was no way He could convince Bank of America, Wells Fargo, or ANY loan company to give us even 50 cents. We’d been down this road before of getting turned down and leaving the bank discouraged and embarrassed. I wasn’t about to go through that again. We walked into the bank WITH the city’s biggest land developer at the time, as he was a personal friend of ours, and the bank STILL told us no… with the super rich dude sitting right beside us.
So, with all that said, I left prayer service and went home to start decorating my apartment. Since we signed a year lease, I was going to make my little home the coziest house ever! Well, turns out we wouldn’t need that year lease. In fact, we’d be forced to break it.
A phone call from my brother-in-law came through and he randomly told us about a house he saw. Didn’t these people understand that we weren’t looking for a house? We’d given up that notion. But being the curious person my husband is, he drove us down to the country to look at the house. I liked it. It was pretty. But I wasn’t about to get out of the car. I was pregnant and sick of falling in love with properties that would never be mine. He begged me to get out of the car, and so, I did. I peeped inside and fell in love.
We drove back home, and my husband, full of faith, got on the computer to check our credit score. Nothing had changed. It still looked like trash. He then said, ‘We’re going to the bank in the morning.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, you’re just a glutton for torture, aren’t you? I’m going to bed.’
The following morning we woke up and got dressed. He put on a nice suit and tie, and I put on a navy blue dress and draped it with my BEST pearls… a set I’d gotten from the hair weave store for $1.99. I wore my hair in a classic bun (I got the bun from the same hair weave store), then put on a pair of heels, and we walked in that bank right fancy-like, because that’s whatcha gotta do when you have bad credit. Hold your head high, and act like you belong there.
Baby, you couldn’t tell us NOTHING! That would have been the best Oscar award-winning performance ever! We gave the bank manager our information, she typed in some numbers, and I was preparing my ‘thank you so much for taking the time to see us anyway’ speech. What happened next still gives me chills to this day. She turned from her computer, looked at us, and said, ‘OK, just give me a second to print out your approval letter.’
WHAT?!?!? Did she just say ‘approved?’ We walked out of there in tears at what God had done. God told His prophet less than 90 days. We were under contract in 30 days. Many other things transpired in that time I cannot even tell y’all, but about two months later, we were sitting at a lawyer’s office, signing papers for our new house…with our three-day-old baby in the carrier beside us. Yes, three days old.
We thought we would need excellent credit, a co-signer, money from our family, or even one of the most powerful businessmen in town to help us. But how many of you know God don’t need no matches. He’s fire ALL by Himself! He removed all the crutches so He could get all the glory. I’m not sure what you are standing in the need of tonight (house, job, false charges dropped, whatever). I’m not even sure where you are in life right now. But if you ever get to the point where you feel like God is ALL you have, you’ll discover He is ALL you need!”
This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Ganelle Sutton. You can follow her journey on Facebook. Submit your own story here and be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.
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