Verse 16

Proper Fasting“When you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, they have their reward!

Referenced Verses

  • Isa 58:3-5 : 3 They lament,‘Why don’t you notice when we fast? Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’ Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, you oppress your workers. 4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by arguments, brawls, and fistfights. Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven. 5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want? Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the LORD?
  • Matt 6:2 : 2 Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward!
  • Matt 6:5 : 5 Private Prayer“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward!
  • Luke 18:12 : 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
  • Ps 35:13 : 13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, and refrained from eating food.(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!)
  • Ps 69:10 : 10 I weep and refrain from eating food, which causes others to insult me.
  • Ps 109:24 : 24 I am so starved my knees shake; I have turned into skin and bones.
  • 1 Cor 7:5 : 5 Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then resume your relationship, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
  • Acts 10:30 : 30 Cornelius replied,“Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock in the afternoon, I was praying in my house, and suddenly a man in shining clothing stood before me
  • Matt 9:14-15 : 14 The Superiority of the New Then John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked,“Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?” 15 Jesus said to them,“The wedding guests cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.
  • Mark 2:18 : 18 The Superiority of the New Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said,“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
  • Luke 2:37 : 37 She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
  • Dan 9:3 : 3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
  • Zech 7:3-5 : 3 by asking both the priests of the temple of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets,“Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?” 4 The message of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies then came to me, 5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows:‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me– for me, indeed?
  • Mal 3:14 : 14 You have said,‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD of Heaven’s Armies?
  • 2 Sam 12:16 : 16 Then David prayed to God for the child and fasted. He would even go and spend the night lying on the ground.
  • 2 Sam 12:21 : 21 His servants said to him,“What is this that you have done? While the child was still alive, you fasted and wept. Once the child was dead you got up and ate food!”
  • 1 Kgs 21:27 : 27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He slept in sackcloth and walked around dejected.
  • Neh 1:4 : 4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
  • Esth 4:16 : 16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. If I perish, I perish!”
  • Acts 13:2-3 : 2 While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, after they had fasted and prayed and placed their hands on them, they sent them off.
  • Acts 14:23 : 23 When they had appointed elders for them in the various churches, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the protection of the Lord in whom they had believed.
  • 2 Cor 6:5 : 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in hunger,
  • 2 Cor 11:27 : 27 in hard work and toil, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing.