Fasting

Since it is Lent, I thought a post on fasting would be appropriate.  Here is a summary of the February, 1998 issue of The Lutheran Witness titled 12 Reasons to Go Hungry:

1. Fasting expands your compassion.
• Understand what people going hungry are going through more
2. Fasting helps prepare you for a major challenge
• Esther 4:16
3. Fasting can improve your physical health.
• Americans eat too much
4. Fasting benefits others
• The money saved by not eating can be shared with others. 
5. Fasting creates more time for other spiritual disciplines.
• Instead of eating, pray, read the bible, etc...
6. Fasting is “good for the soul.”
• In other words, don’t be a glutton.
7. Fasting reminds us that we do not live by “bread alone.”
• Deuteronomy. 8:3, Matthew 4:4
8. Fasting can give you more physical and mental energy.
• Going without a meal often results in greater energy and vitality. -Dr. Hellmut Lutzner
•  The same principles apply to one’s spiritual life. An overloaded stomach can interfere with prayer by making us feel sluggish and tired.
9. Fasting helps us appreciate things more.
• You don't take the blessing for granted after going without
10. Fasting strengthens our virtues and weakens our vices.
• People who pray and fast regularly often experience greater compassion, kindness, sensitivity and love for others. They become less judgmental and more understanding. True humility grows while false pride is diminished.
11. Fasting is good for self-discipline.
• Discipline must be practiced (1 Timothy 4:7)
12. Fasting is a way of following the example of Christ and the Apostles.
• Matthew. 4:1ff, Acts 13:2-3; 14:23

Additionally, from the Benedict Option by Rod Dreher:

Benedictine's Rule was for the ordinary and weak, to help them grow stronger in faith. The rule really consisted of ordering the day and the life. The purpose of order is to free you. It channels your spiritual energy so that your able to accomplish something. As Paul says, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness" -1 Timothy 4:7. Order is not a matter of law and its enforcement. Rather, the law depends on a deeper concept of a natural order. The point of life is to pursue harmony with that transcendent, eternal order.

Submitting to order and rules is hard. It is a good way to counteract the carnal desire for personal independence and becoming self-centered. Eventually, though, it brings humility and peace of not having to rely upon yourself, but relying on God. It is like the Marines. When you don't feel strong enough to will yourself through a hard time, you fall back on your training. You have to train yourself and your heart love and to desire the right things. It is acquiring virtue as a habit.

Asceticism come from the Greek "askesis", meaning "training". One Biblical way to do this is to fast. Another is prayer. Practicing asceticism (denying something that is permitted) is a way to train yourself to say "no" to yourself and "yes" to God. That way you will be able to do it better when it matters. You are "working out" and strengthening you will. How can you have spiritual and moral discipline if you don't start with tangible, material desired first? Some people think it is a way to punish yourself, but an overweight person doesn't diet to punish himself for being overweight, but to be healthier. Little self-inflicted suffering prepares us for real suffering for Christ.