Jesus made it clear, and the apostle Paul repeated the assertion later, that fasting is a vital key to unleashing spiritual power.
In the Greek Orthodox Church, there are still many people who become strict vegetarians during lent; for the same reason, Catholics are encouraged to give up one thing for forty days; the idea has even been picked up by the Muslim faith where, during Ramadan, no food is ingested between sunrise and sunset.
There seems to be a strange, underlying connection between faith and fast.
By now, if you have been following my series of articles on Faith, you will be convinced there are two separate parts of your existence, body and spirit.
There is also a third part which connects the other two and acts as the umpire, your mind.
During life body and spirit are constantly in contention with each other since they want different things.
The body wants physical gratification, food, drink, sex, while the spirit wishes only to return to its eternal home where it can bathe in the eternal light of its source head, our Lord Father.
The spirit is trapped inside its earthly shell, being led one way then another by a selfish, bullying corpus.
Occasionally the mind intercedes and there is respite, but usually it's not long before the body is off again on a new binge.
The mind, however, which has been trained by faith considers the needs of both spirit and body, and sees the importance of training the body to be more accommodating to the spirit's demands.
Fasting, depriving the body of a physical need, is one way of exerting discipline.
Jesus went into the wilderness and ate nothing for forty days.
At the end of this period he was tempted by the devil.
You would think that, starved for this length of time, Jesus would have been easy fodder.
The devil should have had an easy time of tempting the son of God.
But in fact, Jesus was unswerving in his dedication to His faither.
He remembered scripture and kept the devil at bay.
Jesus had been fasting and praying during this time; in this way he had built up the spiritual strength needed to resist any temptation the devil could lay in his path.
Many people, including myself, can testify to the power of fasting.
Unlike Jesus, who was special, we don't have to spend forty days in the wilderness, but we can fast for the odd day as required, or perhaps just give up one item that is dear to us, and only for very special missions do we need to take it beyond that.
As well as food, there are many other things we can give up completely for short periods of time, anything in fact that seems to be taking over our lives.
At the end, you will get a surge of spiritual gratification, a soft elation that is better than any meal, and a new, charged relationship with God.