[[EMPTY]]

I am so starved my knees shake; ¹  I have turned into skin and bones. ² 

I weep and refrain from eating food, ¹  which causes others to insult me. ² 

So I turned my attention ¹  to the Lord God ²  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ³ 

“Yet even now,” the Lord says, “return to me with all your heart – with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, ¹  not just your garments!”

When they had appointed elders ¹  for them in the various churches, ²  with prayer and fasting ³  they entrusted them to the protection ⁴  of the Lord in whom they had believed.

On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ¹  and refrained from eating food. ²  (If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ³ 

Now ¹  John’s ²  disciples and the Pharisees ³  were fasting. ⁴  So ⁵  they came to Jesus ⁶  and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

Then, after they had fasted ¹  and ²  prayed and placed their hands ³  on them, they sent them off.

Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ¹  there was considerable ²  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ³  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁴  of many.

“When ¹  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ²  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ³  they have their reward.

When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ¹  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

She had lived as a widow since then for eighty-four years. ¹  She never left the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. ² 

Look, your fasting is accompanied by ¹  arguments, brawls, and fistfights. ²  Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

Then the king departed to his palace. But he spent the night without eating, and no diversions ¹  were brought to him. He was unable to sleep. ² 

so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

While they were serving ¹  the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart ²  for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

After he fasted forty days and forty nights he was famished. ¹ 

He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” ¹