Bible verses about fasting
Solemn Fast
Joel 2:15 (New Living Translation)
Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Secret Fasting
Matthew 6:16 – 18
“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.”
Fasting for God’s Intervention
Second Samuel 12:15 – 17
“And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David, therefore, sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.”
Solemn Meeting
Joel 2:15 (New Living Translation)
“Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting.”
Fasting to Overcome Addictions
Isaiah 56:3 – 7
“Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, on 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? “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? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him and not to hide from your own flesh?”