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Isaiah 58:3-5
‘ We have fasted before you!’ they say.‘ Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’“ I will tell you why!” I respond.“ It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?
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Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
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Psalms 69:10
When I weep and fast, they scoff at me.
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Nehemiah 1:4
When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.
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Matthew 9:14-15
One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him,“ Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?”Jesus replied,“ Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
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Daniel 9:3
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes.
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Zechariah 7:3-5
They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:“ Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”The Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply:“ Say to all your people and your priests,‘ During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?
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Matthew 6:5
“ When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
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2 Samuel 12 16
David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.
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Psalms 35:13
Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them, but my prayers returned unanswered.
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Matthew 6:2
When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do— blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.
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Mark 2:18
Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked,“ Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”
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Malachi 3:14
“ You have said,‘ What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins?
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2 Samuel 12 21
His advisers were amazed.“ We don’t understand you,” they told him.“ While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.”
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Esther 4:16
“ Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”
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Luke 2:37
Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.
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2 Corinthians 6 5
We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food.
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1 Kings 21 27
But when Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothing, dressed in burlap, and fasted. He even slept in burlap and went about in deep mourning.
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Psalms 109:24
My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones.
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2 Corinthians 11 27
I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
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Acts 14:23
Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
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Acts 13:2-3
One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,“ Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.”So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
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1 Corinthians 7 5
Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self control.
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Acts 10:30
Cornelius replied,“ Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me.