18 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline

The next day, while they were still on their way, and were just getting near the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray. He got very hungry, and wanted something to eat. While they were getting it ready, he fell into a trance, and saw the sky opened and a thing like a great sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by the four corners,read more.
with all kinds of quadrupeds, reptiles, and wild birds in it. And a voice came to him, "Get up, Peter! Kill something and eat it!" But Peter said, "Never, sir! For I have never eaten anything that was not ceremonially cleansed."

There were at Antioch in the church there a number of prophets and teachers??arnabas, Symeon who was called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the governor, and Saul. As they were engaged in worshiping the Lord and in fasting, the holy Spirit said, "Set Barnabas and Saul apart for me, for the work to which I have called them."

Then Jesus was guided by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and nights, and after it he was famished.

Jesus returned from the Jordan full of the holy Spirit, and he was led about in the desert for forty days by the Spirit, and was tempted by the devil. In all those days he ate nothing, and when they were over he was famished.

Then the disciples of John came up to him and said, "Why is it that we and the Pharisees are keeping the fast, while your disciples are not keeping it?" Jesus said to them, "Can wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and they will fast then.

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. And people came and asked him, "Why is it that when John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are keeping the fast, yours are not keeping it?" Jesus said to them, "Can wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and when that day comes, they will fast.

They said to him, "John's disciples observe frequent fasts and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but your disciples eat and drink." Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, in those days they will fast."

There was also a prophetess there named Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old, for after her girlhood she had been married for seven years, and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer.

and for three days he could not see, and neither ate nor drank.

The man who observes the day does it in the Lord's honor. The man who eats does it in the Lord's honor, for he gives God thanks, and the man who abstains does it in the Lord's honor, and gives him thanks.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself and take his cross and follow me.

And he called the people and his disciples to him and said to them, "If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself, and take his cross and follow me.

And he said to everyone, "If anyone wants to go with me, he must disregard himself, and take his cross day after day and follow me.

Let us live honorably, as in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, or in immorality and indecency, or in quarreling and jealousy.

In my opinion, therefore, we ought not to put obstacles in the way of those of the heathen who are turning to God, but we should write to them to avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood.

The right thing to do is to eat no meat at all and to drink no wine or do anything else if it hurts your brother's conscience.

"When you fast, do not put on a gloomy look, like the hypocrites, for they neglect their personal appearance to let people see that they are fasting. I tell you, that is all the reward they will get.

The Pharisee stood up and uttered this prayer to himself: 'O God, I thank you that I am not like other men, greedy, dishonest, or adulterous, like that tax-collector. I fast two days in the week; I pay tithes on everything I get.'