From the scripture, we read about how fasting and praying leads to closeness to God. Whether you are choosing to fast for Lent or as a regular spiritual discipline it is important to know what the word of God says about it.
In the New Testament and the Old Testament, there are various examples of people who fasted as a spiritual discipline.
Fasting is when people give up food or drink and spend time praying, repenting and asking for God’s will to be done in their lives.
Here are some Bible verses on fasting for you to see how it inspires, motivates, and give you more purposes when you’re fasting.
1. 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 –Exodus 34:28
2. I proclaimed a fast so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions….So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer –Ezra 8:21-23
3. Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loosen the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? – Isaiah 58:6
4. “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” –Joel 2:12
5. 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. –Matthew 6:16-18
6. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he [Jesus] was hungry. –Matthew 4:2
7. 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. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” –Matthew 9:14-17
8. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.- Acts 13:3
9. ..and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. –Luke 2:37.
Fasting and praying were important in the Old Testament and New Testament, and today even it is still an effective way to approach God on a deeper level.