LDS Quotes on Fasting
“Every living soul among the Latter-day Saints that fasts two meals once a month will be benefitted spiritually and be built up in the faith of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ – benefitted spiritually in a wonderful way.”
“Recently, living prophets have counseled us to ‘remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, and to live the law of the fast. Obedience to this prophetic counsel provides a way for us to be obedient to God’s commandment to love Him and our neighbor as we increase our faith in Jesus Christ and extend our hand to love and care for others.”
| “If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments,” Sunday afternoon session
“Some difficulties, like devils, do not come out save by fasting and by prayer.”
“Sometimes we have been a bit penurious and figured that we had for breakfast one egg and that cost so many cents and then we give that to the Lord. I think that when we are affluent, as many of us are, that we ought to be very, very generous. . . .I think we should . . . give, instead of the amount saved by our two meals of fasting, perhaps much, much more – ten times more when we are in a position to do it.”
| Conference Report, April 1974, p. 184
“A certain kind of devil goes not out except by fasting and prayer, the scriptures tell us. (See Matt. 17:14-21.) Periodic fasting can help clear up the mind and strengthen the body and the spirit. The usual fast, the one we are asked to participate in for fast Sunday, is to abstain from food and drink for two consecutive meals. Some people, feeling the need, have gone on longer fasts of abstaining from food but have taken the needed liquids. Wisdom should be used, and this fast should be broken with light eating. To make a fast most fruitful, it should be coupled with prayer and meditation; physical work should be held to a minimum, and one should ponder on the scriptures and the reason for the fast.”
| “Do Not Despair,” Ensign, October 1986, p. 4
“Fast offerings are used for one purpose only: to bless the lives of those in need. Every dollar given to the bishop as a fast offering goes to assist the poor. When donations exceed local needs, they are passed along to fulfill the needs elsewhere.
“As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have traveled the world testifying of Him. I come before you today to bear another witness – a witness to the suffering and need of millions of our Heavenly Father’s children. Far too many in the world today – thousands upon thousands of families – experience want each day. They hunger. They ache with cold. They suffer from sickness. They grieve for their children. They mourn for the safety of their families. These people are not strangers and foreigners but children of our Heavenly Father. They are our brothers and our sisters. They are “fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Their fervent prayers ascend to heaven pleading for respite, for relief from suffering. At this very hour on this very day, some members even in our Church are praying for the miracle that would allow them to surmount the suffering that surrounds them. If, while we have the means to do so, we do not have compassion for them and spring to their aid, we are in danger of being among those the prophet Moroni spoke of when he said, “Behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel . . . more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.”
| “The Law of the Fast,” Ensign, May 2001, p. 73
“What would happen if the principles of fast day and the fast offering were observed throughout the world[?] The hungry would be fed, the naked clothed, the homeless sheltered. … A new measure of concern and unselfishness would grow in the hearts of people everywhere.”
| “The State of the Church,” Ensign, May 1991, 52–53.
“If Latter-day Saints faithfully fulfilled the law of the fast, and if they prayed in connection therewith as commanded and paid an honest fast offering, they would be blessed more abundantly – both temporally and spiritually – and there would be ample funds in the Church to provide for all our poor, as the Lord has commanded. He has given us the way, but sad as it may seem, we are negligent about the payment of an honest fast offering.
“Many of us may sometimes wonder why blessings are seemingly withheld from us. It could well be that the laws on which those blessings are predicated have escaped our attention or that we underestimate the necessity for obedience to those laws. It may well be therefore, that many of our desired blessings are never realized because we do not more faithfully obey the law of fasting and prayer and contribute for the blessing of the poor the full value of the meals not consumed on Fast Day.”
| General Conference, April 1962
“Upon practicing the law of the fast, one finds a personal well-spring of power to overcome self-indulgence and selfishness.”
| In Conference Report, Apr. 1978, 121.
“The law of the fast is probably as old as the human family. … In ancient times, prophet-leaders repeatedly gave to church members the commandment to observe the law of fasting and praying.”