Quotes on Fasting

Comments on Fasting by Christian Leaders

“It would not do to say that preachers study too much.  Some of them do not study at all; others do not study enough.  Numbers do not study the right way to show themselves workmen approved of God.  But our great lack is not in head culture, but in heart culture; not in lack of knowledge, but lack of holiness is our sad and telling defect – not that we know too much, but that we do not meditate on God and His Word and watch and fast and pray enough.”  — E.M. Bounds

“I was also led into a state of great dissatisfaction with my own want of stability in faith and love…I often felt myself weak in the presence of temptation and needed frequently to hold days of fasting and prayer and to spend much time in overhauling my own religious life in order to retain that communion with God and that  hold upon the Divine truth that would enable me efficiently to labor for the promotion of revivals of religion.” 

–Charles G. Finney

“Our ability to perceive God’s direction in life is directly related to our ability to sense the inner promptings of His Spirit.  God provides a specific activity to assist us in doing this….Men through whom God has worked greatly have emphasized the significance of prayer with fasting….In an extended fast over three days, one quickly experiences a great decrease in sensual desires and soon has a great new alertness to spiritual things.” 

– Bill Gothard

“First, let it be done unto the Lord, with our eye singly fixed on Him.  Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven; to express our sorrow and shame for our manifold transgressions  of His holy law; to wait for an increase of purifying grace, drawing our affections to things above; to add seriousness and earnestness to our prayers; to avert the wrath of God; and to obtain all the great and precious promises which He hath made to us in Jesus Christ….Let us beware of fancying we merit anything of God by our fasting.  We cannot be too often warned of this; inasmuch as a desire to “establish our own righteousness”, to procure salvation of debt and not of grace, is so deeply rooted in all our hearts.  Fasting is only a way which God hath ordained, wherein we wait for His unmerited mercy; and wherein, without any deserve of ourselves, He hath promised freely to give us His blessing.” 

– John Wesley

“If you say I will fast when God lays it on me, you never will.  You are too cold and indifferent.  Take the yoke upon you.”

 – Dwight L. Moody

“Learn from these men that the work which the Holy Ghost commands must call us to new fasting and prayer, to new separation from the spirit and the pleasures of the world, to new consecration to God and to His fellowship.  Those men gave themselves up to fasting and prayer, and if all our ordinary Christian work there were more prayer there would be more blessing in our own inner life.”

–Andrew Murray

“As a Boomer, I have been conditioned to enjoy the best the world has to offer.  Fasting speaks boldly to consumerism, one of my generational core values.  To set aside what I want to encourage personal spiritual growth is what it means to deny myself and take up my cross daily in the nineties.  I suspect it would be difficult for me to rise to the challenge of discipleship and live a consistently Christian lifestyle without practicing the discipline of fasting.” 

– Douglas Porter

“We should fast when we are concerned for God’s work.  I believe the greatest thing a church could have is a staff, deacons, and leaders who fast and pray – not when the church burns down, but in order to get the church on fire.  A lot of dead churches would catch fire if the people in places of leadership would set aside a period of time for fasting and prayer….Fasting brings about a supernatural work in our lives.  God will not entrust supernatural power to those whose lives are not under total control….The Christian who would have the supernatural power of God must be under the total control of the Holy Spirit.”

 – Charles Stanley