The Purpose Of Fasting

I've never done much fasting, a little on rare occasions, sometimes to no apparent effect. Trying to learn more about it (and other spiritual disciplines) now. I guess I always thought the main purpose for fasting was something along the lines of "enhancing our prayers." I just read a different perspective in Richard J Foster's Celebration of Discipline: "...success in prayer, the enduing with power, spiritual insights--these must never replace God as the center of our fasting. John Wesley declares, 'First, let it [fasting] be done unto the Lord with our eye singly fixed on Him. Let our intention herein be this, and this alone, to glorify our Father which is in heaven....'" I never thought about how fasting glorifies God. It says to Him, to myself, and to any angels or demons looking on: "God is worthy of my attention and focus to the extent that I abandon even nourishment for a time." It highlights HIS value. Awesome thought.

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