The Proposal

My boyfriend had finally asked me to marry him, and I was super excited. God had given me the person I had asked for, I had just gotten a good job, he had a good job, we both loved God, and nothing could get better than that. Finally, everything seemed to be falling in pleasant places for me after a long time of waiting and hardship.

A few months after he proposed, we started attending premarital counseling classes and were making plans for the wedding and he mentioned that the wedding would be based on faith. I didn’t think much about it because I felt he was just speaking ‘Christianese.’ It was not until we started budgeting and discussing the finances for the wedding that I truly understood he meant what he had said. The money we needed and what he had in his account at the time were insufficient to fund the wedding I had always desired. It was at this point, I truly understood what he meant by "the marriage will take place by faith," and so the faith walk began.

I started by writing down all the things we needed and putting the prices alongside. We prayed over it and just kept trying to sort out what we could with what we had. The wedding was in about 2 months, and there was little or no money in sight, nor was there help coming from anywhere. An uncle of mine had offered to pay for the venue as his gift to us, and I had a wedding dress. Beyond that, everything else was at a standstill.

The wedding was in a month's time, and I had been considering asking that we postpone it because I did not see how we were going to meet up, but we kept praying.

On one of those off days, I was at the office working on a computer, but my mind was far from it as I was thinking about the wedding. A colleague of mine, whom I barely knew, came inside and started chatting and asking about the wedding. I smiled and said all was well, then kept working on my screen. I don’t know why, but for some reason, she began to share her wedding adventure with me and the cases were so similar, but hers seemed worse than ours. She then told me that it got to the point where she wanted to move her wedding forward because the finances didn’t seem to add up, and she just didn’t know how they would do it. That was the point at which she actually got my attention. I kept listening to her story with great interest to see how it would end. She told me that everything seemed to work out beautifully. As she sat in on her seat at the wedding, she was in awe of God’s goodness. Talk about the testimony I needed to hear.

The conversation moved on to other things, and she left. It wasn’t until years later that I told her how much her testimony, vulnerability and sharing helped me. Her testimony gave me courage and built my faith to know that if God could do it for her, he would do it for me as well.

Despite her testimony, no money seemed to be coming in and to compound matters, a widow my fiancé and I had adopted during our church’s “widows' and missions'” week asked for help. She had never ever called for anything, but that day was different; she was almost crying and narrating how her landlord had threatened to throw her and her kids out for not keeping up with the rent. I was so upset at the thought that someone could look at a person in that condition. While I was ranting and mad at the man, the lady quickly stepped in and begged me not to take offense at him because he had really tried for them, as they had been owing him for a while but couldn’t meet up with the balance. Her honesty intrigued me. I asked her how much it was, and she told me. Chai, see us looking for money, and see money looking for ways to leave us. I called my fiancé and told him the issue, so we resolved to pay the money quickly and just let go of things we had put aside for the wedding. I know how it feels to lack and to hear a mother in need for her children was a feeling that was more real to me than can be imagined. So we sent her the money quickly. I can never forget her call the moment she received the money. She said, "Thank you! Tonight my children and I will be able to sleep without fear! "I'm so grateful." And she prayed for us some more (I believe this was one of the unknown genesis of our breakthrough).

So there we were; November was rounding up, and our list was more unticked than ticked.

One day, on my way to work, I was asked to drop a family friend at the junction and while driving, he shared with me why he had come to Abuja and how he had just gotten a ticket to campaign for a house of representative’s position for his state. He told me how much the ticket cost at that time and goodness, it was so much. He said someone or a group had paid for him, so he was coming out. I prayed for him and wished him well as he disembarked from the car.

That conversation was exactly what I needed to get angry in the spirit in order to pray. The chances that my family friend would win the election were 50/50, and yet, someone was willing to risk that amount and buy him a ticket.

As I drove, I began to present my argument and strong points before God on why we needed the money we were asking for. If a person can do that for a family friend, then my heavenly father can do much more for me.

I told God how he was the One who instituted marriage and how Jesus didn’t fail to provide wine at the wedding at Canaan to save the couple and their families from embarrassment. I told God that I had never seen a king whose child struggled to get money to get married or do something they felt was important. If a common human king could do it, then I see no reason why my Heavenly Father, who is not just a king but the King of all kings, will be silent and watch his children struggle to get funds to carry out a project that is noble and instituted by him.

By the time I got to work, I had finished my prayers and vexation and was headed for a meeting. Our office had not paid some money due us, and we were tired of the wait. A few minutes into the meeting, I just heard a message alert. I checked my phone, and lo and behold, that pending money had been paid. I was so happy. I was so thankful, and I knew God had heard.

That same week, my husband’s office nominated him to go to Germany for a training, and the Esta-code for them was an amazing sum. Goodness, my Heavenly father was working overtime, and I was happy. It was as if he was waiting for me to realize whose child I was. I was the child of the most-high God, the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords, and my heavenly father was going all out for this child who dared to ask.

As if that wasn’t enough, relatives, uncles, friends, and family began sending money and asking what needed to be done even without being asked. To top that one, on my fiancé's journey home, their flight had issues, and upon arrival, the airline paid them another huge sum as compensation. God was working everything out in our favor.

With only two weeks left, I was already overwhelmed by God's goodness, and if He had stopped there, I would have been grateful, but He refused. He was out to blow our minds. I went to drop a card for my uncle and hadn’t met him yet, so I went back a second time, but this would be my last attempt as I needed to travel to Jos for my send-forth, so I said I would simply drop the card with his security and ask him not to be offended that I wasn’t unable to wait and hand it to him myself.

As I got in, my uncle came out, and I gave him the card. He then looked at the card and asked if we had gotten someone to do our wedding decorations because he had someone he would like to bring to do it. I thanked him and told him not to bother, we had already gotten someone. He then handed me a very large sum of money and said we should use it to pay for the wedding decorations, and I should use the rest to take my friends out since it was my birthday. I was surprised because I truly wasn’t expecting anything as he had done more than enough for me in this life time (please help me just say a blessing for my uncle J). I didn’t even know how huge the sum was until I got into my friend’s car and gave them their share of the birthday money because I was too over whelmed with wedding activities to bother with my birthday.

My fiancé had been saying he wanted to go on honeymoon, and I thought his priorities were mixed up because, for me, I was just begging God to help us have a decent wedding and enough food for everyone. Beyond that, I did not feel a need to burden God, but my fiancé kept praying about it and for him, it was even more important than having souvenirs or anything else.

Wedding preps were moving better than expected when my friend’s mom called and said, "Serah, I’m so sorry I can’t make the wedding." I’ve tried to see how I can do it, but I won’t meet up. "I will send you a little something as a gift!" I thanked her and went about my business. A few minutes later, the alert came in, and I almost ran out of the house.

At this point, I was crying so much because I had barely known her and she honestly didn’t owe me anything. Her daughter was my friend and I had never done much to deserve her friendship, so I was overwhelmed by her mother’s generosity.

At a wedding of barely enough, I saw God show up in ways we could never have imagined and if you're wondering if my husband got his request, he did. In fact, we both did. God even arranged two honeymoons for us because our booking to Dubai had issues, so we had to stop in Kenya and lodged in a beautiful hotel for a few days before moving to Dubai.

Like the wedding in Canaan, God ensured there was an excess of everything. Wedding souvenirs, drinks, and food were in excess to the extent that they were begging people to bring bowls to take things away.

When God throws a party, he throws it well and when He celebrates His children, He does it in style.

If you got married and there was never a time you thought to move it, congratulations! You are among a privileged few because too often, I meet people who are almost overwhelmed with wedding bills, especially if you are from my country, Nigeria.

I decided to share my story to remind and encourage someone who is planning on getting married or preparing for a wedding and is discouraged that God will show up if you invite Him. Remember who you are and whose you are, and tell your Father what you need. Ask Him for anything and leave no detail out, then step back and allow Him to demonstrate that He is an amazing Father who enjoys helping His children.

Do you have a wedding story or testimony of God’s timely provision to share? Please help someone overcome today by saying what and how God supernaturally met a need in your life. For the blood of the lamb and our testimonies have triumphed over us.