The Significance of Fasting

The euphoria of 31st December Watch-night (x-over) Services has come and gone, and Lent is here with us; a period of annual/yearly 40 days of fasting prayers on the church’s calendar. And as the WBL notes, some people have seen this activity as only mechanical, just like the people of Israel in Isaiah 58, and do not receive any spiritual benefits from it; that is really sad because Fasting is, perhaps, the most powerful spiritual discipline of all the Christian disciplines, and to go through it and not benefit must be avoided at all cost!

But do we really have clear objectives for fasting during the period? Do we make the effort to measure/assess the impact or success of it? And most importantly, how can we get to allow the period to have tangible/significant positive social impact through us.