18 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline

The next day, while they were still on their way and were approaching the town, about noon, Peter went up to the housetop to pray. He had become very hungry and longed for food; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance. He beheld the sky opened, and a vessel descending like an enormous sail let down to earth by four corners.read more.
In it were all kinds of quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth, and wild birds. A voice came to him, saying, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." "Not so, my Lord," answered Peter, "for I have never yet eaten anything common and unclean."

Now there were in the church in Antioch prophets and teachers; Barnabas and Symeon, surnamed "the Black," Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they were worshiping the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

Then Jesus was led up into the desert by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he became hungry,

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, all the time tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during these days, and at the close of them he was hungry.

At that time the disciples of John came and asked him, "Why are we and the Pharisees always fasting, while your disciples are not?" "Can the friends fast at a wedding-feast," said Jesus, "so long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom has been taken from them, and then they will fast.

Now the disciples of John and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, and people came to ask him, "How is it that the disciples of John and the Pharisees are fasting, but your disciples are not?" "Can friends of the bridegroom fast while he is still with them?" asked Jesus. "As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then, on that day, they will fast.

Again they said unto him. "Why do the disciples of John fast frequently, and make supplications, as also do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples are eating and drinking?" "Can you make the bridal party fast," he asked, while the bridegroom is still with them? "But there is coming a day when the Bridegroom will have been taken away from them; then at that time they will fast."

There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in age, having lived with her husband seven years, after her girlhood, and then being a widow even for fourscore and four years. She departed not from the temple, but worshiped with the fasting and prayer, night and day.

And he remained there three days, seeing nothing, and without eating or drinking.

He who regards the day, regards it unto his Lord; and he who regards it not, disregards it unto his Lord. He who eats meat, eats unto his Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who abstains, abstains unto his Lord, since he, too, gives God thanks.

Then Jesus said to his disciples. "If any man wishes to come after me, let him renounce self, take up his cross, and follow me.

Then summoning the crowd to him, with his disciples. he said: "If any man wishes to follow me, let him renounce self, take up his cross, and so follow me.

And he said to all. "If any man wills to follow me, Let him renounce self and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Let us live honestly, as in the day, Not in reveling and drunkenness, Not in lust and licentiousness, Not is strife and jealousy;

"My judgment therefore, is against troubling those who turn to God from among the Gentiles; "but that we should write to them to abstain from the pollution of idols and from fornication, from meat killed by strangling, and from blood.

The right course is not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything through which your brother is made to stumble.

"When you fast, do not look downcast like the hypocrites; for they disfigure their faces so that it may be apparent to men that they are fasting. In solemn truth I tell you, they already have received their reward.

"The Pharisee stood apart and thus began to pray by himself. "'O God, I thank thee that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer; "'I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all my possessions.'