66 Bible verses about the power of Fasting

The power of fasting really lies in honestly opening your heart to the Lord. It's in that space where His love shines through and transforms every part of who you are. Fasting is something you do when you’re truly seeking Jesus, when you're willing to sacrifice physical needs to ask for a deeper connection with Him.

It strengthens your spirit, grows your faith, and draws you closer to God. By saying "no" to the physical demands of your body, you're saying "yes" to a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. It's about prioritizing that connection above all else.

When you abstain from food or drink for a set time, it’s like a spiritual and physical cleanse. It helps to clear away anything that might be holding you back or weighing you down.

Remember what Matthew 6:16-17¹ says – it's not about showing off or seeking attention when you fast. It's about humility and sincerity before the Lord.

But days shall come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.

And he said to me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to afflict yourself before the Lord your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words.

Sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord,

So Cornelius said, "From the fourth day until this hour I was fasting, and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in shining clothing,

And Jesus said to them, "Can the groomsmen mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith, let it be unto you."

I have not chosen this fast, nor such a day for a man to afflict his soul; although you should bend down your neck as a ring, and spread under you sackcloth and ashes, neither thus shall you call a fast acceptable.

saying, Why have we fasted, and You did not see? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You did not know it? Nay, in the days of your fasts you find your pleasures, and all them that are under your power you wound.

Now therefore, says the Lord your God, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation:

"Moreover, when you fast, do not become gloomy, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly I say to you, that they receive their reward in full.But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord; but do you loose every burden of iniquity, do you untie the knots of hard bargains, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust account?Break your bread to the hungry, and lead the unsheltered poor to your house; if you see one naked, clothe him, and you shall not disregard the relations of your own seed.

Now therefore, says the Lord your God, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation:and tear your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for He is merciful and compassionate, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and relenting of evil.

Sound the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service:

I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord; but do you loose every burden of iniquity, do you untie the knots of hard bargains, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust account?

And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

Now as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them."Then, fasting and praying, and laying their hands on them, they sent them away.

And Moses was there before the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water; and He wrote upon the tablets these words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

But I, when they troubled me, put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall return to my own bosom.

And having chosen elders for them in every church, and having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Then shall you cry, and God shall hearken to you; while you are yet speaking He will say, Behold, I am here. If you remove from you the band, and the stretching forth of the hands, and murmuring speech;and if you give bread to the hungry from your heart, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light spring up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as noon day;and your God shall be with you continually, and you shall be satisfied according as your soul desires; and your bones shall be made fat, and shall be as a well-watered garden, and as a fountain from which the water has not failed.

And I proclaimed there a fast, at the River Ahava, that we should humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us, and for our children, and for all our property.For I was ashamed to ask of the king a guard and horsemen to save us from the enemy in the way; for we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all that seek Him, for good; but His power and His wrath are upon all that forsake Him.So we fasted, and asked of our God concerning this; and He hearkened to us.

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they were completed, He was hungry.

And Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set his face to seek the Lord earnestly, and he proclaimed a fast in all Judah.And Judah gathered themselves together to seek after the Lord; even from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach.

And the children of Israel and all the people went up, and came to Bethel. And they wept, and sat there before the Lord; and they fasted on that day until evening, and offered whole burnt offerings and perfect sacrifices before the Lord,

Do not deprive one another, except by mutual agreement, and that for a season, so that you may devote yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

And they were gathered together to Mizpah, and they drew water, and poured it out upon the earth before the Lord. And they fasted on that day, and said, We have sinned before the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.

And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

Then they said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?"And He said to them, "Can you make the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them?But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days."

Speak to the whole people of the land, and to the priests, saying, Though you fasted or lamented in the fifth or seventh months (yea, behold, these seventy years) have you at all fasted to Me?

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for several days, and continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Then shall you cry, and God shall hearken to you; while you are yet speaking He will say, Behold, I am here. If you remove from you the band, and the stretching forth of the hands, and murmuring speech;and if you give bread to the hungry from your heart, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light spring up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as noon day;

And Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set his face to seek the Lord earnestly, and he proclaimed a fast in all Judah.

Be humbled before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Speak to the whole people of the land, and to the priests, saying, Though you fasted or lamented in the fifth or seventh months (yea, behold, these seventy years) have you at all fasted to Me?And if you eat or drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves?

And the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.And the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from off his throne, and took off his robe, and put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes.And proclamation was made, and it was commanded in Nineveh by the king and by his great men, saying, Let not men, or cattle, or oxen, or sheep, taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water.So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloth, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned everyone from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying,Who knows if God will relent, and turn from His fierce anger, and so we shall not perish?And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God relented of the evil which He had said He would do to them; and He did it not.

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and He was spending the night in prayer to God.

With what shall I reach the Lord, and lay hold of my God most high? Shall I reach Him by whole burnt offerings, by calves of a year old?Will the Lord accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of fat goats? Should I give my first born for ungodliness, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?Has it not been told you, O man, what is good? Or what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with the Lord your God?

Then the disciples of John approached Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?"And Jesus said to them, "Can the groomsmen mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things oppose each other, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Therefore, brothers, I exhort you through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your intelligent service.And do not fashion yourselves after this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and well pleasing and perfect will of God.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, along with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

but they that wait on God shall renew their strength; they shall put forth new feathers like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. Indeed the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

But I, when they troubled me, put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall return to my own bosom.I behaved agreeably towards them as if it had been our neighbor or brother; I humbled myself as one mourning and sad of countenance.

Therefore, brothers, I exhort you through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your intelligent service.

I fast twice a week, I tithe on all things, as many as I acquire.'

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty by God to the pulling down of strongholds,casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,

For the end, A Psalm of instruction, for the sons of Korah. As the deer earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for You, O God.My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?

My knees are weakened through fasting, and my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.

So therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every impediment, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

In those days I, Daniel was mourning three full weeks.I ate no pleasant bread, and no flesh or wine entered into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself with oil, until three whole weeks were accomplished.

For many walk, of whom often I was speaking to you, and now even weeping I tell you, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who are mindful of earthly things.

Watch therefore, praying always that you may be counted worthy to escape everything that is about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man."

May He grant you according to your heart, and fulfill all your desires.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit in my inward parts.Cast me not away from Your presence; and remove not Your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of Your salvation; establish me with Your directing Spirit.

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things oppose each other, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

So we fasted, and asked of our God concerning this; and He hearkened to us.

So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

And I proclaimed there a fast, at the River Ahava, that we should humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us, and for our children, and for all our property.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

"Moreover, when you fast, do not become gloomy, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly I say to you, that they receive their reward in full.

And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. Now they compete in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we compete for an imperishable crown.Therefore I run thus: not as without a goal, thus I box: not as one beating the air.But I treat my body roughly, and I bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

And I set my face toward the Lord God, to seek Him diligently by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth.

Prayer