Eight Purposes For Fasting

Release from
Oppression

Isaiah 58:6: “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?”

Petition God's Mercy

Esther 4:16: “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”

Repent of Sin

Jonah 3:5: “So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.”

Prepare for Spiritual
Battle

Matthew 4:1,2: “Then Jesus was
led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He
was hungry.”

Seek God
in Humility

Prepare for a Decision or Action that Requires God’s Guidance and Blessing

Acts 13:2,3: “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.”

Engage in Intercessory Prayer

Daniel 9:3,16: “Then I set
my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes . . . ‘O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain...’”