S
Strategery
Guest
Righto. Fasting without increasing prayer is a diet.Ain’t it the truth! Trust me, I can become miserable when I’m hungry, and without increased prayer and focus on God I’m better off not fasting at all, and it still isn’t easy. Fasting and prayer go hand in hand.
Fasting is a spiritual discipline. If a person tries to do it to lose weight, it’s using spiritual discipline to
Because it’s a spiritual discipline, there needs to be a spiritual objective. For me personally, I’ve taken on fasting (I’m going bread & water on Ash Wed and all the Fridays) to obtain the discipline I need to resist the two biggest sin areas in my life - personal pride and gluttony. With gluttony my real issue is that I take too much pleasure and comfort in food. I feel that God is telling me that I need to seek those things in Him, not worldy things.
Each day (two so far) I offer the fast for someone specific who I know needs prayers. A priest in my parish suggested this and I find it helpful. When the hunger pains come I pray for the person I’m trying to help and offer the fast to God for them.
For the OP, my personal opinion is that there isn’t a lot of benefit in fasting just to do it. I think there needs to be a spiritual objective.