“Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them.
Paul writes, “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor 6:12).
Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channels.
“I pommel my body and subdue it,” says Paul. (1 Cor 9:27). Likewise, David writes, “I afflicted myself with fasting” (Ps 35:13).
This is not excessive asceticism; it is discipline and discipline brings freedom…In this, as in all matters, we can expect God to reward those who diligently seek him.”
Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperCollins, 1988) 56.