The verses included in this collection provide insight into the reasons why fasting prayer is encouraged and its potential impact on one’s spiritual life. These verses highlight the spiritual power and significance of fasting prayer, offering guidance on how to approach this practice and the blessings associated with it.
The features of Bible Verses About Fasting Prayer can vary depending on the specific compilation, but they generally include a selection of verses from both the Old and New Testaments. These verses may cover various themes related to fasting prayer, such as seeking God’s guidance, repentance, spiritual strength, breakthroughs, and drawing closer to God.
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Both the Old Testament and New Testament teach the value of fasting, which is abstaining from food or drink in order to focus on prayer and seeking God’s will. Fasting is mentioned over 70 times throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, there were two types of fasting: public and private. Both types offer great spiritual benefits.
Through many examples of people in the Bible who fasted, we can know that God grants supernatural revelation and wisdom through this practice. Moses, Daniel, and even Jesus fasted! Scripture tells us that fasting will help us grow a more intimate relationship with Christ and will open our eyes to what He wants to teach us.
If you are wondering how to fast such as for how long, what to abstain from, and what to pray, these scriptures on fasting will help guide you on your journey! We have also written a guide to help you choose the type of fast that is right for you:
What Does Fasting Do For Prayer
Biblical fasting means saying “no” to yourself and saying “yes” to God. Biblical fasting means to deny the flesh in order to find a more powerful connection with the Holy Spirit.
- Isaiah 66:13: “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.”
- Isaiah 49:15: “Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?”
- Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”
- Proverbs 31:26: “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.”
- Proverbs 31:28–29: “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.'”
- Deuteronomy 6:6–7: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
- Proverbs 31:31: “Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”
- Psalm 139:13-14: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
- Genesis 3:20: “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.”
- 1 Peter 3:4: “You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.”
- Deuteronomy 4:9: “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”
- Luke 2:51: “And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”
And in the same way that a regular fast is supposed to boost your metabolism, fasting is a way to super-charge the power of your prayer life!
Prayer is a way to let go and give everything over to God.
I don’t know about you, but when I look at the world around me I feel scared. Life is hard and getting harder every year. The lost world keeps getting crazier and more sure they are right.
The Christians around me are more intolerant. Very rarely do I see a glimpse of the power or abundant life Jesus said His disciples would have.
Fasting Scriptures For Breakthrough
That scares me. Does it scare you?
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (Matthew 9:14-15 NASB)
Jesus, when talking to the disciples talks about the life of a believer being powerful and abundant. How do you get to that place of living a powerful, abundant life? I don’t see much evidence of it around me and I desperately want it, don’t you?
After many years in the faith, I realized there are parts of the scripture that we – the Church – ignore. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that the original believers would have practiced and seen great value in.
But fasting – setting aside what we seek for satisfaction in order to seek God for satisfaction – is not regularly taught in 21st Century churches. Why not?
Fasting is where the power is, where the abundant life takes root and keeps on giving you strength to fight the real battle for the Kingdom of God!!!!!!! Don’t believe me?
We could start in the Old Testament (and we’ll get there soon) but I love to start with the words of Jesus when a religious practice is labeled “Old Testament” and unnecessary.
“Then the disciples of John *came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:14-15)
Bible Verses To Read When Fasting
Matthew 6:16-18 ESV / 633 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 / 362 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.
Joel 2:12 ESV / 323 helpful votes
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Mark 9:29 ESV / 278 helpful votes
And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Joel 1:14 ESV / 260 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.
Acts 13:3 ESV / 219 helpful votes
Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Isaiah 58:6 ESV / 211 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?
Esther 4:16 ESV / 194 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.”
Luke 2:37 ESV / 184 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.
Acts 13:2 ESV / 179 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.”
Ezra 8:21-23 ESV / 179 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.
Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 177 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? …
Matthew 6:18 ESV / 156 helpful votes
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.
1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 150 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.
Matthew 5:6 ESV / 136 helpful votes
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 9:14-15 ESV / 133 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.
Nehemiah 1:4 ESV / 126 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.
Ezra 8:23 ESV / 119 helpful votes
So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
Matthew 4:4 ESV / 116 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.’”
Matthew 17:20-22 ESV / 108 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,
Psalm 35:13 ESV / 103 helpful votes
But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
Matthew 6:16 ESV / 101 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.
Daniel 10:3 ESV / 99 helpful votes
I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.
Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 92 helpful votes
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. …
Matthew 4:2 ESV / 91 helpful votes
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Psalm 69:10 ESV / 83 helpful votes
When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.
1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV / 81 helpful votes
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Daniel 9:3 ESV / 80 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.
Luke 18:12 ESV / 77 helpful votes
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
1 Corinthians 7:1-5 ESV / 70 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.
Ezra 8:21 ESV / 67 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.
Jonah 3:5 ESV / 66 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.
Isaiah 58:3 ESV / 64 helpful votes
‘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.
Acts 13:2-3 ESV / 62 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.
Matthew 4:1-4 ESV / 61 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
