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 bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they will fast in those days.

Then said he to me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry to the LORD,

And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

And Jesus said to them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they will fast.

Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it to you.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

Why have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast. Verily, I say to you, they have their reward.But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face;That thou mayest not appear to men to fast, but to thy Father, who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou shouldst bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou shouldst cover him; and that thou shouldst not hide thyself from thy own flesh?

Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water: and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom.

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

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;And if thou shalt draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:And the LORD will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drouth, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated by us.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,Being forty days tempted by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing; and when they were ended, he was afterward hungry.

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.And Judah assembled, to ask help of the LORD: even from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the LORD.

Defraud ye not one the other, except with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan may not tempt you for your incontinence.

And they assembled at Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and there said, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward hungry.

And they said to him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink?And he said to them, Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they will fast in those days.

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?

And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;And if thou shalt draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?And when ye ate, and when ye drank, did ye not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.For word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God: yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do to them; and he did it not.

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out to a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old?Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what the LORD doth require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples fast not?And Jesus said to them, Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they will fast.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom.I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so my soul panteth after thee, O God.My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

Wherefore, seeing we also are encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, 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 mind earthly things.)

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Grant thee according to thy own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel.

But seek ye 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 right spirit within me.Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated by us.

And he said to them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face;That thou mayest not appear to men to fast, but to thy Father, who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

However, this kind goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting.

Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to fast. Verily, I say to you, they have their reward.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one that beateth the air:But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.

And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Prayer