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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 the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Then the man said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel, because from the day you first set your mind to understand things and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I’ve come because of your words!
Demand a fast, request a special assembly. Gather the elders and all the land’s people to the temple of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
Cornelius answered, “Four days ago at this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon, I was praying at home. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me.
Jesus responded, “The wedding guests can’t mourn while the groom is still with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they’ll fast.
Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, “It will happen for you just as you have believed.”
Is this the kind of fast I choose, a day of self-affliction, of bending one’s head like a reed and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
“Why do we fast and you don’t see; why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?” Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want, and oppress all your workers.
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow;
“And when you fast, don’t put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting. I assure you that they have their reward.When you fast, brush your hair and wash your face.Then you won’t look like you are fasting to people, but only to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Isn’t this the fast I choose: releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke, setting free the mistreated, and breaking every yoke?Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house, covering the naked when you see them, and not hiding from your own family?
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with sorrow;tear your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, very patient, full of faithful love, and ready to forgive.
Isn’t this the fast I choose: releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke, setting free the mistreated, and breaking every yoke?
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.
As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Appoint Barnabas and Saul to the work I have called them to undertake.”After they fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on these two and sent them off.
Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He didn’t eat any bread or drink any water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.
But when they were sick, I wore clothes for grieving, and I kept a strict fast. When my prayer came back unanswered,
They appointed elders for each church. With prayer and fasting, they committed these elders to the Lord, in whom they had placed their trust.
if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon.The LORD will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won’t run dry.Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.” If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;
Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might submit before our God and ask of him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.I had been ashamed to ask the king for a group of soldiers and cavalry to help us in facing enemies on the way, because we had told the king, “The power of God favors all who seek him, but his fierce wrath is against all who abandon him.”So we fasted and prayed to our God for this, and he responded to us.
Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.There he was tempted for forty days by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving.
Frightened, Jehoshaphat decided to seek the LORD’s help and proclaimed a fast for all Judah.People from all of Judah’s cities came to ask the LORD for help.
Then all the Israelite troops went back up to Bethel and wept, just sitting there in the LORD’s presence. They fasted that whole day until evening. Then they offered entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices to the LORD.
Don’t refuse to meet each other’s needs unless you both agree for a short period of time to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come back together again so that Satan might not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
So they assembled at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out in the LORD’s presence. They fasted that same day and confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD.” Samuel served as judge of the Israelites at Mizpah.
Some people said to Jesus, “The disciples of John fast often and pray frequently. The disciples of the Pharisees do the same, but your disciples are always eating and drinking.”Jesus replied, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you?The days will come when the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.”
Say to all the land’s people and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and the seventh month for these past seventy years, did you fast for me?
When I heard this news, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.” If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon.
Frightened, Jehoshaphat decided to seek the LORD’s help and proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
Say to all the land’s people and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and the seventh month for these past seventy years, did you fast for me?When you ate and drank, weren’t you the ones eating and drinking?
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes.Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water!Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!”He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish. God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.
During that time, Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night long.
With what should I approach the LORD and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves?Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?He has told you, human one, what is good and what the LORD requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.
At that time John’s disciples came and asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees frequently fast, but your disciples never fast?”Jesus responded, “The wedding guests can’t mourn while the groom is still with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they’ll fast.
A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires. They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do.
So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service.Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.
Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks.Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary.
Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.”
But when they were sick, I wore clothes for grieving, and I kept a strict fast. When my prayer came back unanswered, I would wander around like I was grieving a friend or a brother. I was weighed down, sad, like I was a mother in mourning.
So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service.
Our weapons that we fight with aren’t human, but instead they are powered by God for the destruction of fortresses. They destroy arguments,and every defense that is raised up to oppose the knowledge of God. They capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Just like a deer that craves streams of water, my whole being craves you, God. My whole being thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and see God’s face?
So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up,
During that time, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three weeks.I didn’t eat any rich foods. Neither meat nor wine passed my lips, and I didn’t clean up at all until the three weeks were up.
As I have told you many times and now say with deep sadness, many people live as enemies of the cross.Their lives end with destruction. Their god is their stomach, and they take pride in their disgrace because their thoughts focus on earthly things.
Stay alert at all times, praying that you are strong enough to escape everything that is about to happen and to stand before the Human One.”
Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me.Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit.
I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires.A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires. They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do.
Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might submit before our God and ask of him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.
When you fast, brush your hair and wash your face.Then you won’t look like you are fasting to people, but only to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you fast, don’t put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting. I assure you that they have their reward.
Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies.So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing.Rather, I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others.
I then turned my face to my Lord God, asking for an answer with prayer and pleading, and with fasting, mourning clothes, and ashes.