18 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline

Next day they were still on the road and not far from the town, when Peter went up to the roof of the house about noon to pray. He became very hungry and longed for some food. But as they were getting the meal ready, a trance came over him. He saw heaven open and a vessel coming down, like a huge sheet lowered by the four corners to the earth,read more.
which contained all quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth and wild birds. A voice came to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But Peter said, "No, no, my Lord; I have never eaten anything common or unclean."

Now in the local church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Symeon (called Niger) and Lucius the Cyrenian, besides Manaen (a foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. As they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Come! set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

Then Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights and afterwards felt hungry.

From the Jordan Jesus came back full of the holy Spirit, and for forty days he was led by the Spirit in the desert, while the devil tempted him. During these days he ate nothing, and when they were over he felt hungry.

Then the disciples of John came up to him and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast a great deal, and your disciples do not fast?" Jesus said to them, "Can friends at a wedding mourn so long as the bride groom is beside them? A time will come when the bridegroom is taken from them, and then they will fast.

As the disciples of John and of the Pharisees were observing a fast, people came and asked him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, and your disciples do not fast?" Jesus said to them, "Can friends at a wedding fast while the bridegroom is beside them? As long as they have the bridegroom beside them they cannot fast. A time will come when the bridegroom is taken from them; then they will fast, on that day.

They said to him, "The disciples of John fast frequently and offer prayers, as do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your adherents eat and drink." Jesus said to them, "Can you make friends at a wedding fast while the bride groom is beside them? A time will come when the bridegroom is taken from them, and then they will fast at that time."

There was also a prophetess, Hannah the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher; she was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her girlhood and having been a widow for eighty-four years. She was never away from the temple; night and day she worshipped, fasting and praying.

For three days he remained sightless, he neither ate nor drank.

the man who values a particular day does so to the Lord. The eater eats to the Lord, since he thanks God for his food; the non-eater abstains to the Lord, and he too thanks God.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me;

Then he called the crowd to him with his disciples and said to them, "If anyone wishes to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and so follow me;

He said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross day after day, and so follow me;

let us live decorously as in the open light of day ??no revelry or bouts of drinking, no debauchery or sensuality, no quarrelling or jealousy.

Hence, in my opinion, we ought not to put fresh difficulties in the way of those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, but write them injunctions to abstain from whatever is contaminated by idols, from sexual vice, from the flesh of animals that have been strangled, and from tasting blood;

the right course is to abstain from flesh or wine or indeed anything that your brother feels to be a stumbling-block.

When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they look woebegone to let men see they are fasting; I tell you truly, they do get their reward.

The Pharisee stood up and prayed by himself as follows; 'I thank thee, O God, I am not like the rest of men, thieves, rogues, and immoral, or even like yon taxgatherer. Twice a week I fast; on all my income I pay tithes.'