Week of Prayer - Some thoughts on fasting...

"Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God....Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of a superior satisfaction in God; it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away. The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie....The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most ly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable and almost incurable.

...Therefore, when I say that the root of Christian fasting is the hunger of homesickness for God, I mean that we will do anything and without anything if, by any means, we might protect ourselves from the ening effects of delights and preserve the sweet longings of our homesickness for God. Not just food, but anything."
(John Piper, A Hunger for God, pp. 14-15)