What Does the Bible Say About The Importance Of Fasting?

Matthew 6:16-18 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Acts 14:23 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 13:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Acts 13:2-3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Luke 2:37 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Matthew 17:20-22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men,

Matthew 4:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

2 Corinthians 11:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes

In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1 Corinthians 7:1-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Acts 13:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Acts 10:30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Cornelius said, “Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing

Acts 9:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Luke 18:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

Luke 5:33 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”

Mark 9:29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

Mark 2:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Matthew 9:14-15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Daniel 6:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

Isaiah 58:6-8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Psalm 35:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

Philippians 4:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

2 Corinthians 6:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

Acts 13:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Luke 4:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

Matthew 9:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jonah 3:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

Joel 2:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;

Joel 1:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

Daniel 9:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? ...

Esther 4:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

Ezra 8:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

2 Chronicles 20:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

2 Samuel 1:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

Leviticus 16:29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.

40 Bible Verses about The Importance Of Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 14:23 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 13:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 13:2-3 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 2:37 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Nehemiah 1:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 17:20-22 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 4:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 11:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:1-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 13:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 10:30 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 9:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 18:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 5:33 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 9:29 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 2:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 9:14-15 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Daniel 6:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 58:6-8 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 35:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 4:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 6:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 13:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 4:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 9:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jonah 3:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Joel 2:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Joel 1:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Daniel 9:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Esther 4:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezra 8:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Chronicles 20:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Samuel 1:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 16:29 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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