Prayer And Fasting Bible Verse: A Spiritual Discipline for Seeking God’s Guidance
Prayer and fasting are powerful spiritual disciplines that have been practiced by believers throughout history. These practices involve seeking God’s guidance, seeking His presence, and seeking His will through prayer and abstaining from food for a period of time. The Bible is filled with verses that emphasize the importance and benefits of prayer and fasting. Let us delve into some of these verses that highlight the significance of this spiritual discipline.
1. 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.”
2. Joel 2:12 – “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
3. Acts 14:23 – “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.”
4. Ezra 8:23 – “So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.”
5. Nehemiah 1:4 – “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.”
6. Matthew 17:21 – “But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.”
7. Acts 27:9 – “Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them.”
8. Isaiah 58:6 – “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?”
9. Daniel 9:3 – “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.”
10. Luke 2:37 – “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.”
11. Matthew 4:2 – “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”
12. Psalm 35:13 – “But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.”
13. 2 Chronicles 20:3 – “Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.”
14. Isaiah 58:9 – “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness.”
15. Acts 10:30 – “And Cornelius said, ‘Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.'”
16. 1 Samuel 7:6 – “So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.”
17. Ezra 10:6 – “Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night, neither eating bread nor drinking water, for he was mourning over the faithlessness of the exiles.”
18. Matthew 6:5 – “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.”
19. Matthew 9:14 – “Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'”
20. Acts 27:33 – “As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.'”
21. Matthew 26:41 – “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
22. Jeremiah 14:12 – “Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
23. Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
24. Luke 18:12 – “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”
25. 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.’ Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”
26. Esther 4:16 – “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.”
27. Isaiah 58:3 – “‘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.”
28. Jonah 3:5 – “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.”
29. Acts 27:21 – “Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.'”
30. Luke 4:2 – “For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
31. Psalm 69:10 – “When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.”
32. Mark 9:29 – “And he said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.'”
33. Acts 27:9 – “Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them.”
34. 2 Samuel 12:16 – “David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.”
35. Matthew 26:40 – “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?'”
36. Mark 2:18 – “Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'”
37. Luke 18:9-14 – “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.'”
38. Psalm 109:24 – “My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.”
39. Zechariah 7:5 – “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?'”
40. Matthew 15:32 – “Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.'”
41. 2 Corinthians 6:5 – “Beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.”
42. Acts 27:21 – “Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, ‘Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss.'”
43. Matthew 9:15 – “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.'”
44. Psalm 109:24 – “My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.”
45. Acts 27:33 – “As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.'”
46. Matthew 6:16 – “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.”
47. Luke 4:2 – “For forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
48. Isaiah 58:4 – “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.”
49. Acts 27:9 – “Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them.”
50. Luke 4:14 – “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.”
In conclusion, prayer and fasting are integral spiritual disciplines that enable believers to seek God’s guidance, seek His presence, and seek His will. These practices are highlighted throughout the Bible and have been embraced by countless individuals in their pursuit of a deeper relationship with God. As we engage in prayer and fasting, may we remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:18, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”