Fasting and Prayer

What Fasting is

To go without food or certain types of food for religious reasons.

To go without anything for a period of time.

All Food

Solid Food

Certain foods

Television

Phone

Etc.

It should be something that is missed.

Purpose

Fasting provides unique spiritual benefits in the life of the believer.

Fasting requires self-control and discipline, as one denies the natural desires of the flesh. During spiritual fasting, the believer's focus is removed from the physical things of this world and intensely concentrated on God.

Put differently, fasting directs our hunger toward God. It clears the mind and body of earthly attention and draws us closer to God. So, as we gain spiritual clarity of thought while fasting, it allows us to hear God's voice more clearly. Fasting also demonstrates a profound need of God's help and guidance through complete dependence on him.

Bible Verses about Fasting:

2 Samuel 1:12 NASB95

12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

Daniel 10:3 NASB95

3 I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.

Esther 4:16 NASB95

16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.”

Exodus 34:28 NASB95

28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

2 Samuel

New Testament

Luke 2:36–37 NASB95

36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.

Luke 2:26-

Acts 13:2 NASB95

2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Acts 13:3–4 NASB95

3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Acts 14:23 NASB95

23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

1 Corinthians 7:5 NASB95

5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Jesus Fasted

Luke 4:1–2 NASB95

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.

Fasting with the right attitude

Matthew 6:

Matthew 6:16–18 NASB95

16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Luke 18:12 NASB95

12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

Fasting is Not

Seeking favor with God

Punishing yourself for your sins

Obtaining from Sin