When is fasting appropriate?

2 Samuel 3:35David had refused to eat anything on the day of the funeral, and now everyone begged him to eat. But David had made a vow, saying, “May God strike me and even kill me if I eat anything before sundown.”

Fasting is appropriate in times of mourning.

2 Samuel 1:12They mourned and wept and fasted all day for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the Lord’s army and the nation of Israel, because they had died by the sword that day.

Fasting is appropriate in times of crisis.

Deuteronomy 9:18-19“Then, as before, I [Moses] threw myself down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the Lord hated, provoking him to anger. I feared that the furious anger of the Lord, which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again he listened to me.”

Ezra 10:6Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He spent the night there without eating or drinking anything. He was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned exiles.

Fasting is appropriate in times of intercession for the sins of others.

Acts 14:23Paul 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.

Fasting is appropriate in times of dedication.

2 Samuel 12:16David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.

Fasting is appropriate on behalf of others in times of a life-threatening illness.

Jonah 3:5The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

Fasting is appropriate in times of repentance.