As a Christian, fasting should be something you do regularly. It is important for you to abstain from food and drinks sometimes, just so you can draw close to God and strengthen your relationship with him.
Although you need to keep in mind that fasting isn’t just about skipping meals, you need to pray too, otherwise, you are just starving yourself. Prayer is a very important part of fasting.
There are so many reasons why one will want to fast but even if you think you have no reason to, fasting is a great way to strengthen your relationship with God. So by fasting, praying, and meditating on the word of God, you can build a close relationship with him.
Below, you’ll see some bible verses about fasting, to help you understand the importance of fasting and what to do when you are fasting.
Bible verses about fasting
Matthew 6:16-18
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Psalm 69:10
When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn.
2 Samuel 1:11-12
Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
Joel 2:12
Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.
1 Corinthians 7:5
Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Daniel 10:2-3
At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.
Esther 4:16
Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.
Isaiah 58:6
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Ezra 8:22-23
I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Psalm 35:12-13
They repay me evil for good and leave me like one bereaved. Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered.
Matthew 6:17-18
But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Luke 4:1-2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
Matthew 4:3-4
The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
Acts 13:3
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.
1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 9:27
No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Daniel 9:3
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
2 Samuel 1:12
They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
Judges 20:26
Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord.
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Joel 1:14
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
Matthew 9:14-15
Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
Ezra 10:6
Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
1 Samuel 7:6
When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord. Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah.
Isaiah 58:6-7
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Isaiah 58:3
Why have we fasted,’ they say, and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
Zechariah 7:5
Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
2 Corinthians 11:27
I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
Zechariah 8:19
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.
Joel 2:12-13
Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Matthew 17:20-22
He replied, Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.
Joel 2:15
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
Daniel 9:3-5
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
1 Corinthians 8:8
But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Mark 1:12-13
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Matthew 6:31-32
So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Deuteronomy 9:18
Then once again I fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger.
Jonah 3:5
The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
Exodus 34:28
Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
