God Answered! A Call to Spiritually Fast

How God answered a prayer of mine I honestly forgot about :)

Hi Friends!

How are you? This week, I just want to share how God answered a recent prayer of mine, including the call to fast, and how I’ve moved forward since. Hopefully this is encouraging and maybe a little bit convicting too.

[Disclaimer about fasting]

We are not supposed to boast and overshare about our fasting. In fact, the book of Matthew in the Bible says this about fasting:

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.” (Matthew 6:16, NLT Version)

Therefore, I wanted to add a quick disclaimer that me sharing about fasting is not from the heart posture of wanting to seem like a perfectly pious Christian. I waited until the fast was done to publish this, and my heart behind this is truly to encourage anyone who has may been considering fasting from something whether that be sugar, alcohol, music, or more! This is not intended to be me gloating in any way. :)

The Prayer

The prayer was simple: I wanted to hear God, and I wanted God to hear me. More specifically, I wanted to talk to God about this very blog. When I released the first post two weeks ago, I had no idea what to do next. Duh I needed to keep writing, but the anxiousness I felt about this project led me to feel there’s more to do or perhaps, I shouldn’t be writing a biblical wisdom blog at all. I’ve always heard the saying “He doesn’t call the qualified but He qualifies the called”, yet I still had my doubts.

As I prayed to God for direction, that little negative voice in my head started pestering me again. This is pointless. It said, Why are you waiting to hear something right now? He’s not going to answer. I counteracted this by reminding myself of the truth which is that God does hear us. 1 John 5:14 says,

“Now this is the confidence that we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

So, aloud, I said these truths:

• The Lord will hear me, because He promised He would (in reference to 1 John 5:14)

• I can hear from God, and I have before

BUT I’ll admit to you, this all happened around 3am, so I fell asleep right afterwards and forgot about the whole prayer by morning teehee.

The Answer

The next day (well, technically the same day since, again, I was praying at 3am), I got bored and decided to check for new videos on YouTube, when I came across a video from one of my favorite Christian content creators, Deborah B. Now, I want to make it VERY clear that seeing a video come up on your TikTok fyp or Reels or YouTube does NOT always mean that it’s “from God.” Everyone who claims to have a prophecy or a an interpretation or whatever is not necessarily doing it through the Holy, and even if it’s a perfectly biblical person and message, and it still might not actually be “for you” (believe me, I would know).

However, on her thumbnail she put the message “It’s Time to Fast!”, and it made me remember that there were a lot of times just this past May where I felt like I should fast but made every excuse in the book as to why I shouldn’t. I watched the video, but God really spoke to me outside of what she was specifically talking about.

Side Note

Many Christians will tell you different ways they “hear” God, and it’s rarely explained as hearing a literal voice for anyone whose confused (although I’m sure God can reveal Himself through a literal voice). For me, when I hear God, I just randomly get hit with this intense feeling of knowing. I just know what I didn’t previously know before.

The Fast

I asked God what to do about my next steps for this blog–the promotional efforts specifically, and God’s answer was to do nothing.

He called me to fast from entertainment, but especially social media, for two weeks.

At first, this felt extremely backwards. How am I supposed to grow this account if I can’t even promote it? Won’t I lose engagement if I don’t keep up my very consistent posting schedule on Instagram? How will this affect my favor with the algorithm? My plan prior was to actually step on the gas with my content and promotional efforts!

However, I realized this was the exact problem. I wanted to crack the algorithm. I wanted the glory of growing a fast following. Quickly, this account, which is supposed to be dedicated to Jesus, was becoming about me. I was putting more trust in the algorithm and myself than the God who created me and the algorithm. Can God be confined to an algorithm? Last time I checked, God can grow this account to where He wants it to grow in His own strength. I had our roles all mixed up. By fasting, I could surrender this back to His hands, where it all belongs, trusting that everything will work out as He plans, whether He wants to use this account to reach 5,000 people or 5.

In the midst of the fast, I realized this was probably the longest I’d gone like this in years: no school, no work, no social media, very little TV. The day moved slower, my patience increased, I wrote and read more, and I heard from God better in other areas of my life too. With extra time to think, I could really process my thoughts and take them back to God in order to better understand why my brain goes to certain places.

Because I have an Instagram account for the book I’m working on (@anaya.notes), I won’t be able to fully get rid of social media, but it has shown me that I need to take breaks from it more frequently. Social media truly is a blessing and a curse.

The funny part about all of this is that it wasn’t until MUCH later that day, possibly the next, that I remembered my 3am prayers. I’d completely forgotten I asked God for some direction. I think this goes to show that God really does answer your prayers, even the ones you forgot you prayed!

Until next time,

Anaya