So as excited as I am that you're doing the 30 Day Husband Fast, there are FAQ’s and Pointers I think need addressing before we start this...
Are there any health concerns with fasting? Fasting is completely safe, when done in a properly monitored way. Intermittent fasting has actually increased in popularity in the world of health and fitness, as it has multiple benefits. I would say though, please do consider your personal health situation before choosing how to fast. Each and every one of us is different, and this fast is a choice – it’s not by force now – so please don’t feel pressured to have to do it. As a Christian, you have the responsibility of making sure your temple is in check so only commit to what you can healthily and spiritually achieve.
Why fasting? The biblical point of fasting is to refrain from/give up something we require/need daily, so that we can dig deeper in our reliance on God. Fasting is primarily meant to encourage us to seek and spend time with God, so it does require us to give up something that is challenging. Keyword - Challenging! Yes - we do want to be challenged during the process so we can rely on God more. Remember the greater the challenge, the greater (and deeper) that prayer. And boy…when it comes to the topic of Husband’s we are praying deep, deeper and deeeeper!
What are the different types of fasting? There is a wet fast, dry fast and something I like to call ‘alternative’ fast.
Wet Fast – you can drink water throughout the duration but refrain from flavoured drinks and food.
I personally do drink herbal teas/black coffee throughout the period i.e. green tea but, try to steer away from anything with food I might chew i.e. a lemon/ginger tea – where I actually put fresh lemon and ginger in. Likewise with coffee, no mocha's, latte's, flat whites, no nada. With liquids the important thing to remember is to avoid anything that could be a ‘meal replacement’ or provides that ‘sugar’ boost. So Red Bulls, Lucozades, milkshakes etc are no no’s.
Dry Fast – you refrain from food and drink. For the elites amongst you, if you really want that 40 Day Jesus flow (Matthew 4: 1-11) then dry fasting is the elite of the elites in the fasting game. It is not only physically challenging, but does push those mental chords as well. So if you really want to hit that spiritual high, and push yourself by all means we are prayerfully here for it!
Alternative Fasting – you may choose something of similar value to food/drink that you rely on/utilise a lot/obsess over, as opposed to giving up all food/drink. For example this could be social media, junk food, alcohol, certain tv shows etc. So, whereas with wet/dry fasting you give up food and drink to a certain extent, with alternative fasting you may give up elements of either or something completely different but of similar value.
Remember with fasting the key point is, it’s – supposed – to – be – challenging, so as to help you further your focus and that relationship with God.
What kind of fast is this? This really is dependent on you as an individual and what you can commit to. The first time I did this, was the first time I had fasted for more than 1 day and I did a ‘wet’ fast, so as to really challenge myself and my commitment to the prayer topic at hand. I basically said to myself ‘I know what I’m like, I can give up my favourite ice cream for a month no biggie, but if I really care about this issue, if I really want to commit this matter to the Lord I need to get serious and prepare to be challenged.’ Perhaps that’s how you’re feeling...so dig into that and commit this to the Lord.
How long in a day are you fasting for? Again, this really is dependent on you as an individual and what you can commit to. When I first did this I split my weeks up into 4 i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4 (I know what a maths whizz) and set different time limits per week. Week 1 I fasted from 12am (or the time I woke up) until 3pm, Week 2 I fasted from 12am (or the time I woke up) until 4pm. By Week 4 I was fasting until 6:00pm-6:30pm – and to be honest sometimes longer, as by the time I finished an activity and made by dinner it was past 7pm on occasion. But please don’t be daunted by that, this is more just to reiterate this is dependent on you, and is between you and God first and foremost. But...to challenge yourself try from 12am till past your lunchbreak and see how you get on!
How do you end your fast? So each day I encourage you, if you're not already ;-) to be reading your Bible prior to breaking the fast. I have weekly prayer topics/reading guides/devotional recommendations to help with the topics that are set for the week, but crucially you want to be digging into the word of God throughout this time.Then when it comes to actually breaking your fast doing this with worship/prayer – whatever you can do, in the space that your in. When doing this (again, for the first time) I was doing this with my Mum, Sisters (and my Aunt from Church), so in our house (as this was during the Covid-era,
so we had time and space! We would break the fast by gathering, singing 1 (or in my Mum’s case 2 or 3) worship songs, then each of us would take turns to pray…then eat! Unfortunately we don’t all live/work together, however this is just to give you ideas of how to break your fast – if you want to. Now yes, although some of us may be in the office that's not an excuse ;-) try to find a quiet spot to have a quick prayer/prayer over your lunch. Or pop out for a walk etc to do some worship/prayer. Alternatively, you could just eat straightaway but…I trust that you will prayerfully consider not doing that/God is watching you.
What else do you do during the 30 Days? It’s really important to think daily on what are you fasting about? Why are you fasting about this? And what do you desire to get out of this? Now I know that you may answer Husband, Husband, Husband to all 3 questions, but the reality is yes we are fasting for a Husband, but also the desire to grow deeper in our relationship with God, so he can better guide us in the process of answering this prayer.
A good friend (shoutout Rio lol) once made it clear that fasting is NOT a bargaining tool, and that is so key to remember. So if you're coming into this thinking 'God I'm doing this fast, so if I do this fast then you can give me a Husband...right now.' Then I want to make it clear that we don't bargain with God. Yes, we have a desire and yes we are persisting like the persistent widow (Luke 18: 1-8), but vs.8 ends with the following - But when the Son of Man comes, will he find on this earth anyone with faith? We are approaching this fast from the point of faith, we are faithfully committing this desire to the Lord and addressing this desire with steadfast devotion (through fasting and prayer), knowing that as a faithful God, He will guide us to a good and expected...end/Wedding. Could this occur before/during/straight after/just a few days/months etc after the fast? Yes, God does as he pleases (and if that does occur you must invite me to the Wedding #byforce) but the most important thing to remember is, we are fasting because we have a desire that we are bringing to the Lord, not bargaining with the Lord.
So, I am really encouraging you to spiritually be more mindful of your thoughts and actions during this time. Dedicate time daily to the Lord for prayer, worship and reading the Bible. The reason I will be communicating with you all during this time is to encourage this devotion, encourage us to dig deeper into the word so that we can grow in awareness of ourselves, our Husbands and build on that foundation with the Lord. Yes, fasting in itself is a task but it’s always best to think, what else can I be doing to get the best out of this? At the end of the day in any successful relationship, there is consistency, so this is a great opportunity to push ourselves in getting more consistent with the Lord if we struggle with that, or just building/improving on that consistency if we already have that in our walk with the Lord. There may be a whole host of other reasons you are doing this fast, and if so by all means write these down or however you record your thoughts/dreams/plans. Just be open to being more spiritually mindful of what else you can personally do during this process.
Are you fasting for the whole 30 Days? Yes. It’s called the 30 Day fast for a reason!
POINTERS
Worship
I’m drumming it in, because I may as well but as this fasting period is all about spending time with God therefore, I strongly suggest spending some time in worship. Whether that be during your morning routine, one track, a few tracks a few hours, just before you bed whatever you wish – you Worship away.
Songs to do with faithfulness, God’s promises, journeys and so forth are generally songs I like to listen to, and these are some that I have come across and that have been suggested.
Some of these are on the main page already, but these are by no means exhaustive. I’m curating a playlist to share, so if you have any suggestions let me know and I can add them to a Playlist ;-)
Prayer Guides
A key fundamental part of this fasting is prayer, and to get the most of this fasting I'm creating weekly themes and daily topic suggestions. For example week 1 the theme is You (Yahweh Over Us), and for the 7 days there is something to pray about in relation to God, You and how that impacts Us (well you and your spouse), with some prayer hints
The reality is, with the 4 topics we will look at, 1 day/1 week isn’t enough, for example, introspective topics on the subject of You (i.e. self-help) make up a multi-billion pound industries. So praying over this for 1 week is more a less a starting point as this fast is meant to encourage us in committing these topics to the Lord, in relation to our Husbands and also ourselves. After the 30 Days you are more than welcome to continue to pray about these themes, and I pray that as you continue to commit these matters to God you grow in faith.
Alternatively if you don't want to follow the prayer guides/topics - guess what...you have to! I'm kidding, you don't have to, by all means if you have specific topics you want to be reading out/ praying over i.e. Money, Character, Livelihood, Family etc please by all means do, this fast is to help you dig into what's important with the Lord - and by His grace receive a fresh revelation!
Devotionals
For each theme I am suggesting devotionals to read alongside, to help us dig deeper into the word, understand certain elements of the theme more and for personal growth. Fasting for our future Husband’s has a 2 way functionality, outwardly we are praying for our Husbands and committing certain elements of their lives to God, but internally we are growing we may become aware of certain areas of our lives that we need to improve in. At the end of the day we are going to be Wives to these Husbands, so this is a time for self-preparation as much as it is praying for your Husband.
So with these devotionals I encourage you to be thinking about your future Husband whilst reading them, but also thinking about yourself as well. For each week I will list a few devotionals, as a gentle nudge. But as with most things with this fast, it’s totally up to you if you want to read them or not. If you do have any suggestions please share – so we can all be encouraged, it’d be great to build up devotional material!
When it comes to devotionals, as well as the verses they highlight, I do encourage actually reading the entire chapters the devotionals reference, just to dig into God’s word more and understand the context behind the 2 verses that it may highlight to read. You never know the Lord may be speaking to you on something you come across in the other verses!
General Youversion – 7 Day Devotionals
Waiting on God – Dr Charles F Stanley – this is more focused on the overall process on waiting on God to fulfil promises as opposed to being niche specific on the context of Love.
Praying for my Future Spouse – Chuck and Ashley Elliot – this is a prayer guide, covering general topics to think/pray about with Bible verses.
Sex, Purity and the Longings of a Girl’s Heart – this is more focused on us as women and our general journey in singleness and dealing with sexual purity.
Singleness: A Guide For Women - pretty much says it all isn't it.
Community
Another potential subset, is to build real community amongst us women who are going through this time in our lives, to encourage each other. The Bible stresses encouraging each other in faith as means of helping us with our faith (Hebrews 10:24-25). The desire to want to be married and find the Husband God has prepared for you, is a completely healthy biblical desire. But sometimes those around us don’t understand our approach or our process. Through this fasting period I hope that you will be able to connect and communicate with other like-minded women, joining in the highs, temporary lows and one day those wedding bells!
Now that, that is all said and done - Welcome to the #30DayHusbandFast!
