Fasting Brings Breakthrough: How God Moved When I Surrendered

At the turn of another new year, I found myself in a place of quiet desperation — facing yet again the ache of unfulfilled hope. Another January, another season of waiting, and still no sign of the breakthrough I had prayed for. I poured my heart out before God, asking Him once more to bring me the husband I believed He had for me. After so many delays, disappointments, and false starts, I felt weary and wondered if I’d somehow missed my moment. The question that echoed in my heart was, “Lord, where is the man You’ve set aside for me?”

As doubt crept in like a fog, I found myself questioning everything — Was I too picky? Had I waited too long? Did I somehow miss it? Those thoughts can be cruel, can’t they? In the middle of that battle, I gathered a small group of single friends who were also praying for their future husbands. We started a WhatsApp group — a safe space to share our hopes, disappointments, and prayers. Praying together each week rekindled a flicker of hope in me.

Then one day, someone mentioned fasting. I can’t even remember who brought it up, but it felt like a spark from heaven. I’d tried fasting before, but never stuck with it. This time, though, something was different. I felt ready — ready to surrender everything and truly seek God’s will, not just His blessings.

Fasting, I realised, wasn’t about earning answers. It was about aligning my heart with God’s. The Bible mentions fasting over 70 times — from David fasting for his child’s healing (2 Samuel 12), to Esther fasting for her people’s protection (Esther 4), to Jesus Himself fasting for 40 days. Clearly, fasting mattered to God. And if it mattered to Him, it needed to matter to me.

I’d heard people say that fasting brings breakthrough and starting the year with fasting sets the tone for everything that follows, and that idea stuck with me. I didn’t want to face another year striving in my own strength. So as soon as the Christmas leftovers were gone and life settled back down, our little group decided to begin a 21-day Daniel Fast.

Our goal was simple but heartfelt — to pray for our future husbands, to seek God’s will, and to break any strongholds that might be holding us back. Those three weeks became a sacred time I’ll never forget. We each gave up “choice foods” like Daniel did, and focused on feeding our spirits instead.

I can still picture those mornings so clearly — me tucked under a blanket, Bible open, coffee off-limits but spirit alive, meeting with God in that quiet space. I didn’t have a prayer closet, but that blanket became my sanctuary. And in that hidden place, God met me in the sweetest way.

By November of that same year, I said “I do” to the man I had been praying for all along. God was faithful — and that year became one of the most beautiful chapters of my life.

Since then, I’ve made fasting a yearly rhythm. Every time I dedicate my year to God through fasting, He moves in ways I could never have imagined.

So if you’re still waiting — maybe tired, maybe feeling overlooked — I want to gently encourage you: take this step of faith. Set aside time to fast and pray. Let God write your story. He hasn’t forgotten you, and He’s still the God of breakthroughs.

Fasting really does work — not because of what we do, but because of who He is.

Bethany

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