Fasting From Social Media

Isn't it crazy how we used to use the internet to escape from the world, but now we use real life to escape from the internet?  This past week I took a break (fasted) from social media and I feel so refreshed and back in tune with myself. I want to share three things about this:

1. What led me to it
2. What I learned during this time
3. The benefits 


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What led me to do this?

Something didn't feel right within my soul. The past two months I have been so drained and my brain felt extremely foggy. I found myself needing to be on social media 24/7. I spend most of my day scrolling on Instagram especially when I'm not at work. I'm so sucked into it that even when there's nothing happening and I get bored with it, I would exit out and 2 minutes later I'm back scrolling. Pointlessly. I'm literally addicted ( to Instagram mainly ) and it sounds so crazy to say when you actually say it out loud. How do we let apps control our lives? It's wild.
We let the world influence us subconsciously. No matter how much nobody wants to admit it, we all get influenced by what we see on Instagram.  Everyone wants likes. Everyone wants to be an influencer. Everyone is obsessed with money. Everyone wants quick money. Everyone wants to be poppin'. Everyone is worried about what everyone else is doing, wearing, and living like. I'm so guilty of all of it. There's nothing wrong with it until these things become an idol and it's what you think about when you wake up. I know I'm not the only one who wakes up and instantly grabs their  phone. With this being said, I felt led to fast from it. I knew it wasn't spiritually healthy. And I was straying away from the source. God. So, I prayed before and during this fast that God reveal the things I need to work on and pull anything impure out of me. I also received confirmation because I saw this girl I follow make an Instagram post the very day I decided to fast and her caption was "taking a break from this social media platform" or something like that. I also got on YouTube and ran into 2 videos taking about why they "took a break." I was like "okay God I hear you." His way of speaking to me 50% of the time is speaking through someone else.


What I learned 

The first thing I noticed when I started was how much of an impact social media had on me.

I was conforming to it in the tiniest ways. As far as wanting to look good on my feed 24/7 and wanting to know what everyone was up to 24/7. I felt like I was going to missing out on something if I wasn't on Instagram. Then God spoke to me. He said "why do you care so much?" I couldn't even answer the question, but I knew it was just so vain to care that much about things that don't matter. 

During this fast I decided to finish a really good book I started months back. It's called "Rooted" By Banning Liebscher. 10/10 recommend by the way! To sum it up, it's a book that talks about being deeply rooted in Jesus and the idea that God is not interested in developing your dreams or vision until he develops YOU. It's so good! This book READ ME! 

I was reading a chapter that was talking about how we live in a culture now of dreaming big and going after your passion/calling which is so good and inspiring but.... He said it becomes negative when you turn it into something that is all about you. Everybody's purpose in this world is to serve others. That's just truth. My whole entire passion is based on the fact that I LOVE to help people! I wanted to turn my Instagram into a page where people can stop on it and see a light in me. It wasn't looking that way though. Instead it was just pictures of myself on the days I got cute. I noticed I don't smile in pictures as much as I used to and its because I felt like I look better with pucker'd mean face. You know what I'm talking about ladies? Everyone does it. Shoot maybe I would get more likes if I looked "sexier". I feel like that's what I subconsciously think when I'm taking a picture. I also felt like people would get bored with my content if it wasn't like instagram-baddie-ish. You know what I mean? Don't get me wrong I love looking bad every one in a while, but that's not the attention I want to bring onto my page. I had to remember that it never matters what other people are thinking because if God is telling you to do something, you do it. Someone out there may need it. He has proven that to me over and over again. I would post a video about something hesitantly and someone I don't even know will let me know how much they needed it and it's honestly such a breathe of fresh air to hear it. 

So, first thing I learned during this fast: Don't become so consumed with the internet. Eventually it can influence you in a negative way and make you go astray. Replace scrolling on social media with putting your phone down for a couple hours and doing something productive. Which is what I did. I would read my book, watch a movie, actually go in the living room and engage with everyone. 

Number two, let go of the idea of perfection. It's honestly exhausting spending an hour trying to get the perfect picture with the perfect angle, holding my stomach in, making sure my arms don't look huge, and I don't have a double chin. Butt gotta be on point. While I'll never post a picture of me looking crazy, I had to stop stressing myself about if the picture was worth posting because a hair is out of place or if one of my pimples was showing. Being a girl is hard, okay?

This fast gave me such a sound mind. I got my control back as well. It was easier to hear God. I became more aware. By the third day it was so easy not to want to pick up my phone. It gave me a chance to renew my mind. 

I learned that God will answer your prayer if you actually quiet yourself to be able to hear him and genuinely want him to move in your life. But God needs to see effort. Bring all you can to the table and he'll do the impossible for you.I was praying for a schedule change for about a month. I put in a request and none of my managers seemed to care at all. I asked them every other day, and they would just tell me they haven't heard anything back yet. I was getting frustrated. I was thinking that maybe God didn't want me to change my schedule so I left it alone. I didn't want to dwell on it and let it steal my joy. Then, I decided to put in a different schedule change (and this was like the day I started my fast) because I just figured maybe if I just stop asking for weekends off and help them out by staying on night shift they'll at least give me three days. So, instead I put in a schedule change for three days off and week with 10 hours shifts. For some reason I had so much faith that they would approve it this time. I genuinely felt it in my spirit. Little did I know that was God saying to me "daughter, I got you." The whole week I was fasting I still hadn't heard back yet. On Saturday I felt doubt and worry trying to creep in but I was like "nah let me continue to stand on faith." Mind you this was the last day of my fast. I cannot make this stuff up... right before my shift ended I was on my last phone call and my manager slapped a piece of paper on my desk and walked away. Let me show you....

Ask and you shall receive. I looked back at her as she walked away and she looked back at me and winked. I could've cut a freaking back flip. I was smiling so hard. Especially because I went into work very down and I just wanted to go home. God's timing is perfect timing. 

I quieted my mind, fasted, talked to God, had so much faith throughout this whole fast and that's when he finally answered my prayer. Why? Because I trusted him and because I silenced myself to hear him. 💙

This was such a blessing for me. Being able to have more time to work on the things I enjoy while also having a full-time job is important to me. It may not seem like it's that big of a deal to make happen, but it is. Where I work it's almost impossible to ever get your schedule changed, especially with a schedule like mine because they really lack agents at night time which is a struggle. What you have is what you get honestly. So, God really outdid himself. 

The next thing I learned was to always have faith no matter what and never let anything steal your joy. God pays attention to your attitude towards your situation.

I also learned that God is always listening to us and what we're asking him for. He's just waiting for us to listen back. I believe we know the answer sometimes, but it's not exactly what we want so we think it isn't the answer. It's like we're in denial. Like, "God that's not what I wanted." Sometimes his way of answering you is by not answering at all. Sometimes it's giving you what you asked for but he puts his own tweak on it. I prayed for weekends off and a day in the middle of the week. Instead I only got Sunday off and kept Tuesday and Wednesday off as well. It's not what I initially wanted, but I'm so happy with it. God knows what he is doing.

Decrease yourself, so that he increases.

Benefits

1. Discipline

2. The ability to hear God 

3. Renewing your mind and spirit. 🌻

4. Increased faith 

5. Increased favor. (Answered prayers and blessings)