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Sometimes we have the impression that fasting could like coax God or make Him do experience a kind of pity for us. And after a while watching us not to eat, He would say: "All right, now he has suffered enough, he really showed me he's motivated, I'll agree his prayer”.
Be aware that absolutely nobody will never attract the pity of God upon himself. The relationship that God wants to establish with us is based on the fact that He has given us all that He possessed way before we met Him.

So based on this fact, there is no need to beg, to deprive ourselves of food to expect receiving from Him. He gave us everything.
Then one will say, all this is well and good, but in practice how it goes? How does fasting would help me?
To understand what's going to happen when I'm fasting, I have to realise that since I was born again, my being is composed of three parts: my mind, my soul and my body. The fact to deprive myself of food will help my soul to take much on my body. It is no longer my body who dictate the rules, but it's my soul, which itself is influenced by my spirit, regenerated in Jesus Christ.

I'm going for a time, to like cut my body from what feeds him to live, I'll put it as in a life situation in reprieve. All this so that it is completely one with my soul and my spirit. And there is no longer my soul that submits to the desires of my body, or sometimes to the desires of my spirit, but the three who agree together.
In this case there are no more obstacles to my developments. Now I understand that fasting is before all a desire to evolve. Fasting is the result of a strong desire in me to get rid of things that keep me too long.

Another passage, which can be misleading, is the one where Jesus refers to a kind of demon that only comes out through prayer and fasting. This leads some people to think that fasting releases an increase in power which will elevate prayer to a higher level where it is more likely to be heard by God.

Matthew 17: 21. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

Often we are mistaken, because we overlook what happened before. Let us go back to the beginning.
A man has a son who is possessed by demons. These demons drive him into the water or into the fire, it is clear that they want the boy’s death. It is a sad life for the father who is constantly on the watch. Several times he must have narrowly saved his son’s life as he was drowning or burning in flames. This man comes to see Jesus’ apostles to ask them to pray for his son. But the apostles’ prayers were inefficient. The father goes to Jesus to ask Him to set his son free.
What is Jesus’ reaction?

What does he say?

Matthew 17: 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

It is obvious that the apostles did not have enough faith to drive the demons out of the boy. This incident taught them that they still had much to learn and receive.

That's why by saying that this demon only comes out through fasting and prayer, Jesus wants to say they needed that all their being, mind, soul, and body, be one, so that their faith can act to get this demon out.

Fasting increases our faith.

Fasting is a way of life, just as being Christian. These aren't the rites that I am following without understanding the meaning, meals that I miss without realizing that my body is subject to my soul and my spirit, so that, for a time, he is no longer a hindrance to my evolution toward God. We must take advantage of those moments of fasting, where our body is perfectly submissive, and take the opportunity to move forward. These moments are conducive to free ourselves, so that we can change the specific points of our lives. See the fulfillment of our prayers for others is also the effect of our whole being, mind, soul and body that approximates the way of life of Jesus.

Bye for now...

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