About 22 yrs. ago, a traumatic incident occured in my life causing me to stop eating solid food for almost a week. I did drink water, gatorade, and such. Every night during that time, I prayed for hours, prone on my kitchen floor. I prayed in earnest for something I had lost and for a new life filled with the things I needed in my life.

The fasting took me to a base level where the focus was 100 percent on my needs. Yes, I was a mess but my heart was pure and I had never and haven't prayed like that since that fasting period.

Within 2 weeks my prayers were answered completely. All of them. Sometimes I wish I didn't get quite everything I prayed for but I wouldn't change anything in hind sight. Once the early hunger pains left I really never missed the food. I believe Jesus was fasting because the desire for food was earthly and hunger played no part in his communion.

once you get past the hunger, there is no hunger.  One is easily focused on spiritual things, as the basic, consuming drive for the body to be satisfied is not intruding in any way upon the person.  This can be taken, and is by some, to be applied to the passage which speaks of refraining from sexual relations with the spouse for a short time, (agreed upon by both!), for the benefit of the spiritual, for the desires of the flesh would yet be encroaching upon the spiritual, even though fasting.  This is removing another critical distraction.

And yes, there is strong merit in it, from what I've seen.

Tie this into Paul's buffeting his body for the spiritual gain.  How many Christians actually fast?  Few indeed.  And many actually fast regularly, or at least more than once or maybe twice in their life?  Fewer still.  And how many married ones abstain for a period of time in conjunction with fasting, for spiritua reasons?  Even fewer.  How many profess to have great wisdom and insight?  Many.  How many actually receive that which they ask for from God?  Few, by their own admission.  But they are very well "educated" spiritually.

The state of the church saddens me.

Amen!

And yes, Christians should fast.

Is fasting something you DO or something you do NOT do: it seems to me that people were consumed with something else and fasting was "forgetting to eat."  I think that if you begin having "experiences" you may be overdoing it.

My middle and eldest daughter showed up looking wonderful: I went on their high protein diet: no breads or sugar.  My blood sugar went from 140 is to 100 ish and my weight went from about 213 to about 197. I will look for the 180ish range. I feel much betters. Knees don't scream at me and I never have that urge to reach for the cookie jar.  Eat lots of nuts.

That's not fasting but I could about do a whole day without food and it would be a good thing.

In the OT God asked the Israelites: you weep -- but do you weep for ME?  You fast -- but do you fast for ME?  Fasting is like prayer or giving or asking: if the motives are wrong, you will yet miss out on the fulness that God has for you.  Fasting is good: provided that the heart is seeking HIM!  "Seek first the kingdom of God...."  and all these things will be added to you.  Yes, one can come to the Lord and fast for a specific reason, but fast for HIM, due to that specific reason: don't get the cart before the horse!  God will help in this, to, for it is He who works in us to both DESIRE it and then to DO it, with "it" being God's perfect will, which entails fasting.

I think fasting is good practice. The extent can vary from eating smaller meals to complete abstenance. I used to fast regularly in Lent but I have to admit I have slipped in this in recent years. Sometimes thought I fast on bread and water for a day, or substitute bread and water for a meal.

You also have to be aware of what your body can take.

Is fasting of God or is it done through tradition! I have never fasted as I do not think that God wants me to go without nourishment to my body as a sacrifice for me to receive anything from God. I know when I pray that God supplies all my needs and as so many afflicted themselves in the Bible was it by tradition or was it by God. Do we truly know that Jesus went without food and water or was he under Gods true fast. I'm not asking this as a question, but stating what God has said and gave questioned to man. If one wants to fast by not eating I have no problem with that as that is a personal choice, but for me I know what Gods true fast is. Below is what God has said about a mans fasting and what Gods true fast is.

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Isa 58:2  Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
Isa 58:3  Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors.
Isa 58:4  Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Isa 58:5  Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Isa 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7  Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Isa 58:8  Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rearward.
Isa 58:9  Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Isa 58:10  And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
Isa 58:11  And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Good Post!