Bible Verses About Fasting
Introduction
Fasting is one of the most misunderstood spiritual practices in the Bible. It is not a hunger strike directed at God, a technique for getting prayers answered faster, or a demonstration of religious seriousness. At its core, fasting is a physical act that expresses a spiritual reality — that there is something more urgent than food, more necessary than comfort, more satisfying than anything the body craves. It is the body joining the soul in prayer.
The Bible assumes fasting will be part of the life of faith. Jesus does not say "if you fast" in Matthew 6 — he says "when you fast." The question Scripture addresses is not whether to fast but how, and why, and with what kind of heart. These verses speak to anyone wanting to understand this ancient practice and take it up with honesty and intention.
What the Bible Means When It Talks About Fasting
Fasting in Scripture almost always involves abstaining from food, though some fasts also include water. It is practiced individually and communally, in seasons of grief, repentance, crisis, discernment, and worship. It is never presented as a way to earn God's favor or manipulate his response. What it does consistently is reorient a person toward God by removing something ordinary and replacing it with prayer, attention, and dependence.
The Bible also contains some of its sharpest prophetic critique around fasting done wrongly. Isaiah 58 is an extended rebuke of fasting that is performed outwardly while injustice continues unchallenged. The fast God chooses, the prophet says, looks very different from religious performance.
Bible Verses About Fasting as Devotion and Seeking God
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.") Jesus assumes his followers will fast. His concern is not the practice itself but the posture behind it. Fasting performed for human approval has already spent its reward.
Matthew 4:2 — ("After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.") Jesus fasts at the beginning of his public ministry, before his temptation in the wilderness. His fast is not a religious performance. It is preparation — a season of radical dependence before the work begins.
Luke 2:37 — ("She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.") Anna the prophetess is described as someone for whom fasting was a sustained, lifelong practice woven into worship. Her fasting is not crisis-driven. It is devotional.
Acts 13:2-3 — ("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.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.") The church at Antioch fasts before a major missional decision. Fasting here is connected to hearing from God and commissioning for calling.
Bible Verses About Fasting in Repentance and Grief
Joel 2:12 — ("Even now, declares the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.") God calls his people to return through fasting. The combination of fasting, weeping, and mourning suggests that genuine repentance involves the whole person, including the body.
1 Samuel 7:6 — ("They fasted that day and there they confessed, 'We have sinned against the LORD.'") Israel's corporate fast accompanies corporate confession. Fasting gives physical expression to the seriousness of repentance.
Nehemiah 1:4 — ("When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.") Nehemiah's fasting is an act of grief over the broken state of Jerusalem. His prayer that follows is one of the great intercessory prayers in Scripture.
Psalm 35:13 — ("I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting.") David fasts in a posture of humility. Sackcloth and fasting together signal that the body is participating in the soul's orientation of lowliness before God.
Ezra 8:21-23 — ("There, by the Ahava Canal, 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.") Ezra calls a corporate fast before a dangerous journey. The fast is an explicit act of dependence — acknowledging that human resources are insufficient and God's protection is essential.
Bible Verses About Fasting in Crisis and Intercession
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.") Esther calls for a communal fast before approaching the king in a life-or-death situation. The fast is not superstition. It is a declaration of total dependence before an act requiring extraordinary courage.
2 Chronicles 20:3 — ("Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.") Jehoshaphat responds to a military threat with fasting rather than immediate military action. The fast is a posture of seeking before acting.
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.") Daniel fasts while interceding for his people in exile. His fasting accompanies one of the most theologically rich prayers in the Old Testament.
Acts 14:23 — ("Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord.") Fasting accompanies the commissioning of church leaders. It signals the seriousness of the moment and the dependence on God to sustain what human hands have set in motion.
Bible Verses About Fasting Done Wrongly
Isaiah 58:3-7 — ("Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?... 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?") This is Scripture's most extended critique of misguided fasting. God rejects fasting that coexists with exploitation and injustice. The fast he chooses involves concrete action on behalf of the vulnerable.
Zechariah 7:5-6 — ("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?'") God questions the motivation behind Israel's fasting. Religious practices, including fasting, can become self-serving routines that have lost their God-ward orientation entirely.
Luke 18:12 — ("I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.") The Pharisee in Jesus' parable offers his fasting as evidence of his own righteousness. Jesus holds this up not as a model but as a warning about the way religious practice can feed pride rather than cultivate humility.
Bible Verses About the Fast God Chooses
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?") The fast God describes in Isaiah 58 is not only an inward spiritual discipline. It extends outward into justice, generosity, and care for the vulnerable. Fasting that stays entirely private has not yet finished its work.
Micah 6:8 — ("He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.") While not a fasting verse directly, Micah 6:8 frames the kind of life that authentic fasting is meant to cultivate — justice, mercy, and humility before God.
Zechariah 8:19 — ("The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah.") God envisions a day when fasting gives way to feasting. Fasting is not the permanent state of the people of God. It belongs to the present age, oriented toward a coming joy.
A Simple Way to Pray These Verses
Fasting can feel mechanical without prayer to anchor it. These verses can frame what a fast is for.
Matthew 6:18 — ("Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.") Response: "This fast is for you alone. Let it reorient me toward what matters most."
Isaiah 58:6 — ("To loose the chains of injustice.") Response: "Show me where my fast should become action. Don't let it stay only inward."
Joel 2:12 — ("Return to me with all your heart.") Response: "I am returning. Receive what I bring."
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Bible say about fasting? The Bible presents fasting as a normal spiritual practice involving abstaining from food as an act of prayer, repentance, grief, or seeking God. Jesus assumes his followers will fast (Matthew 6:16-18), and the early church fasted before major decisions. Scripture also warns against fasting for show or as a substitute for genuine justice and care for others.
Why did people fast in the Bible? Biblical fasting was motivated by many things including repentance and confession, grief over sin or loss, seeking God's guidance before major decisions, intercession in crisis situations, and devotional worship. The common thread is a turning of the whole person toward God with urgency and dependence.
How long should a fast be? The Bible records fasts of one day, three days (Esther 4:16), and forty days (Moses in Exodus 34:28, Jesus in Matthew 4:2). There is no prescribed length. The duration should be appropriate to the purpose of the fast and the physical capacity of the person fasting. Beginning with shorter fasts and seeking medical advice when needed is wise.
Is fasting only about food? Most biblical fasts involve abstaining from food. Some, like Esther's fast, include water. The principle behind fasting can extend to other things — media, activity, comfort — but when the Bible uses the word fasting it almost always means food. Broadening the concept can be meaningful, but it should not replace the more demanding physical practice the Bible actually describes.
What does Isaiah 58 say about fasting? Isaiah 58 contains one of Scripture's strongest critiques of religious practice. God rejects fasting performed while injustice continues unchallenged. The fast he calls for includes loosing chains of injustice, feeding the hungry, sheltering the wanderer, and clothing the naked. Fasting that does not move toward generosity and justice has missed its own point.
