Prayer Fasting | It's not always food

I do my best to enter any fast I've done with excitement and expectancy mounting in my heart, praying, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Here's more of what I shared in the show - so you can listen in or read below

I'm a new-ish Christian. I always knew who Jesus was, but I never KNEW how amazing He was and how forgiving he was until I started to dive more into trying to connect with him over the past few years.

The few times I've heard from God were nothing short of astounding and my gratitude and heart leap to hear Him again.

I'm sharing with you "Prayer Fasting" in the stair-step way I had to look at it.

I'm a 30-something, generally healthy woman who honestly doesn't have a ton of weight to lose without totally looking & feeling unhealthy.

So when I would hear of people fasting from food for extended periods of time, I honestly convinced myself that was fine for them, they have extra that could sustain them, but me, I would completely shrink, my periods would stop again, and I'd become un-healthy.

First of all, I want to apologize and I ask forgiveness over those thoughts because that is a judgemenal way of looking at others.  I wasn't intending for it to be that, I was just speaking my truth. I barely weighed 113 pounds at 5ft 4in when I did my first fast and I was barely cycling my periods...

I held onto that belief and instead would say "I'll take a fast from saying the F word." "I'll take a fast from eating chocolate". As I think about it, those likely stem from my religious upbringing where we did 'a fast' for 40 days but it was never a total food fast.

Let me make a clarity statment here that I didn't share in the podcast - fasting from a sin, like saying the F word less is not a fast, that's a poor habit I had that I should never pick back up, a fast is something you can pick back up and not let it rule your life again - but fasting from being emotionally or physically abusive, porn, speaking evil over others, witchcraft, fasle prophesy etc is not a fast, that is a sin God ask you to set down forever and He forgives you of it the moment you ask forgiveness.

What about non-food fasting?

if you are not ready for a food fast, but you've clearly felt God has asked you to do one, then examine your heart as I had to mine. What are you really scared of? If it's health reasons (I did sincerely fear losing weight and not cycling when I was desperate to have children) or is there something else?

I know one mom in my small group who decided to do a no-sleeping-in fast. If her body wakes up between 4-5am, instead of waiting for her 5am alarm, she gets up and spends time in her bible (after a nice cup of coffee has brewed!)

So maybe you aren't called to fast food...yet...but you are called to:

• No alcohol for a week
• Waking up before 5am with or without your alarm
• TV and Video Games
• Your Phone going away after or between a certain hour(s)
• Social Media
• Secular / mainstream music

Also be aware, you may hop into a food fast, but really you aren't tempted by food - one article I read on HisDearlyLovedDaughter.com mentioned "if If oils, sweets, or meats are not what you turn to for satisfaction, this type of fasting will fall flat." (I'll link this below)

What are things you crave? Things that if you are bored, you do. Things that feel satisfying, but aren't God satisfying you?

For me, I think instantly of:

• Dark Chocolate
• Wine or Margaritas
• Scrolling IG 'for work purposes'
• Scrolling Amazon or other websites to 'look at clothes'
• Eating baked goods my husband brings home from the bakery

While I've fasted from those before, but I will tell you, the most powerful times I started to fast were food fasts.

Here's the few I've done and the story of how they have reveal some of God's desires to me.  I share these in my Be Well Collective with women as fasts to consider for themselves:

1) A 3 Day Refresh - I've done this one many times and it wasn't until I FINALLY took a moment to realize I needed to add prayer to it that I enjoyed it.

• I would do it for work based purposes as a Team Beachbody / BODi coach it's good to encourage others to try the products because many do want to do it to lose weight and get back on track,  which does happen, but once I put God as my forefront, everything changed. 
• I asked God what do you want me to read from your word as I go through my 3 days? How do you want me to pray to you? What are you asking of me? 
• And He showed me very clearly it was time to stop running my Beachbody challenge groups the way I had.  That He had to be at the forefront of what I was doing because I was new and I had grown into the next step of my business and it was to involve HIM first.

2) a 21 Day Daniel Style Fast - I did this December 2021 after feeling very pulled to try the 3 week of pulling out meats, sweets, and alcohol treats. The one I did is called the Ultimate Reset.

• It was eye opening how often I wanted to turn to alcohol or dark chocolate especially during that time, but I did not and I would always try my best to instead turn to God and say thank you for my body, thank you for cleaning some out of what I do not need, and thank you for helping me see how much I turn to these things.
• Not only did I drop 7lbs, I also had clearer skin, my butt was gone (which I didn't love), but so was my bloat (which I loved). I had SO much energy. 
• This makes me think of Daniel 1:8-20 (where the Daniel Fast comes from) where he asked to only drink water and eat vegetables and prove he would look healthier than the men eating the meats and drinking the palace wine...and he did! He because wise and full of knowledge because of this and was set apart from the King. 
• Upon doing this reset, I opened Biz Well, my 9 week coaching program taking coaches through full offer creation and into sales of their program(s).

3) A 5 day juice cleanse.  I use the Jason Vale 5 day juice cleanse.

• I watch the coaching videos and I took to reading the Bait of Satan and doing the study guide with it so that I would read my Bible intentionally battling roots of offense I had built up through the practices John Bevere has in the book and brings back to the Bible.
• I was also reading Romas with my small group and realized that was probably part of the prompt for me to do this. share romans verse about fasting
• This one was eye opening for me finally by day 5, I was able to clearly iterate how I believed God was asking me to create my 2023 calendar of sharing Biblical truths, health support and business support.

The main thing I take away is fasts helped me rely on Him more. I feel like that great quote from Season 1 Episode 2 of "The Chosen" where Mary tells Nicodemus, "I was one way, and now I am completely different, and the thing that happened in between was Him.”

Fasting Options/ Ideas from others:

A friend shared with me she her fasting via a juice fast and praying on the hour, setting her alarm to go off to remind her.

My husband has done similar with an alarm that goes off reminding him to pray

I haven't gotten there yet. I haven't felt God ask me to do that until I started to type up the notes for this call. So now I think He's asking me to set a timer and pray at my next fast.

• I am pretty diligent about seeking Him, God, in the morning as I wakeup and go to the couch for my reading and prayer spot
• Again I seek Him in the evening before bed as I am about to lay down and I thank him for who He is, ask Him to work through me in His will, and I tell him what I loved and appreciated about the day.
• ...but that middle of the day time, when I'm working, I don't pray as much so this next fast I do, I'll set a timer.

I hope this encourages you, that you don't have to fast just food, there are other things. But if you feel God is asking you to fast something, that you listen.

To have accountability and dive deeper into this, & get access to more resources for the Busy Proverb-ish 31 entrepreneur/mother who needs to have high energy, less bloat, better sleep and better intimacy with her spouse by becoming a Be Well Collective Member. You'll have fitness, nutrition, productivity & business coaching, faith support and true life coaching through the monthly membership that includes 2 calls with me, my faith flow workouts + 20 other workouts, a well laid out Planner & Faith guide for your monthly, weekly and daily planning.

Below are links to access the groups, the additional fasting resources, and a few other blogs I found related tot his topic in the show notes.

I hope to see you in the Be Well Collective where each week after a podcast is released we do an exercise on that week's podcast to help you increase the likeliness of you implementing that week's method or message.

Be Well!

Connect with me on Instagram @TamaraLeeBratton

Email me questions, comments or for support on your own fast:  [email protected] title "Prayer Fast"

NOTES / LINKS:

The Three Cleanses:

1. 3 Day Refresh: https://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/d/3-day-refresh-program-complete-kit-3DComplete?referringRepID=1456352
2. Ultimate Reset: https://www.teambeachbody.com/shop/d/ultimate-reset-complete-kit-URComplete?referringRepID=1456352
3. Jason Vale's 5 Day Juice Cleanse: https://shop.juicemaster.com/pages/5-day-juice-diet

Join the Be Well Collective:  https://www.tamarabratton.com/join-be-well-collective

Blogs I looked at to support this message:

• https://hisdearlyloveddaughter.com/different-types-of-biblical-fasting/
• https://www.allaboutprayer.org/prayer-and-fasting-video.htm
   
• https://www.allaboutprayer.org/prayer-and-fasting.htm#:~:text=Prayer%20and%20Fasting%20%2D%20A%20Definition,is%20not%20always%20the%20case.