QUOTES ON FASTING

  • “Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal.  Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.” Andrew Murray
  • “In Shansi I found Chinese Christians who were accustomed to spend time in fasting and prayer.  They recognized that this fasting, which so many dislike, which requires faith in God, since it makes one feel weak and poorly, is really a Divinely appointed means of grace.  Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength; and in fasting we learn what poor, weak creatures we are - dependent on a meal of meat for the little strength which we are so apt to lean upon.”  Hudson Taylor
  • “Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees.  Have you any days of fasting and prayer?  Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.” John Wesley
  • “We are a culture of abundance that indulges and abuses—fasting is a means of God’s grace to embrace someone greater than our appetites.” Keyan Soltani
  • “I would entreat the people of God to be very cautious how they give heed to such things. I have seen 'em fail in very many instances; and know by experience that impressions being made with great power, and upon the minds of true saints, yea, eminent saints; and presently after, yea, in the midst of, extraordinary exercises of grace and sweet communion with God, and attended with texts of scripture strongly impressed on the mind, are no sure signs of their being revelations from heaven: for I have known such impressions to fail, and prove vain by the event, in some instances attended with all these circumstances.” Jonathan Edwards (Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, p. 282.)

John Piper Quotes on Fasting

  • “Fasting helps cultivate that spiritual hunger by forcing the hunger issue on us and making us ask if we really do hunger for God.” John Piper
  • “Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God” John Piper
  • “Therefore there is a distinctive Christian fasting. It is always both contentment in the already and dissatisfaction in the not yet.” John Piper
  • “We fast because we’re hungry for God’s Word and God’s Spirit in our lives.” John Piper
  • “We fast because we long for God’s glory to resound in the church and God’s praise to resound among the nations.” John Piper
  • "We fast because we yearn for God’s Son to return and God’s kingdom to come.” John Piper
  • “Ultimately we fast simply because we want God more than we want anything this world has to offer us.” John Piper
  • “If you are not fasting, it is perhaps because you do not feel any fervent longings for God’s power in your life.” John Piper
  • “Fasting is an offering of emptiness to show where fullness can be found. It is a sacrifice of need and hunger.” John Piper
  • “And fasting sets us onto God for satisfaction and off of food.” John Piper

 

Helpful Resources for Learning More about Fasting

  •  

Downloadable Content: