Spiritual discipline brings joy, while asceticism brings bitterness.

Thank you for a very practical response. Any of the spiritual disciplines can very easily become "works based salvation." I remember one 90+ year old woman boasting to me that "I have read the New Testament through 3 times!" Good Grief! Just 1 chapter per day would have taken not much more than 2 of her 90+ years, and she was boasting?

Yet, for our growth and communion with God, scripture reading, prayer, meditation – and to a certain degree – silence and solitude can definitely contribute. I really believe many of us are "too busy" to commune with God – BUT, as you observed….

"these are disciplines that should prepare us for our purpose. They are not themselves our purpose."

The purpose for our salvation is works of service, which may, themselves, be "spiritual disciplines" when undertaken in the proper frame of mind – love for both God and Man.

The same question came up in class: if asceticism is wrong, why fast?

I won't pretend to have plumbed the depths of the question, but I see a huge difference between fasting in order to be prepared for ministry (as Jesus did) and fasting as an end in itself. Just so, prayer is a blessing, but God didn't save us so we'd hide ourselves in a cave and pray for the rest of our lives. When we look at our purposes as Christians, we find passages such as the Great Commission, Jesus' Judgment Day scene in Matt 25 and Paul's Eph 2:8-10 and James' "pure and undefiled religion" being to care for widows and orphans. Therefore, disciplines are good and right if they point us toward service. Otherwise they are self-indulgence or distractions.

Another danger of an undue emphasis on these kinds of disciplines is that they are not corporate — they separate us from the body. If we define solitude, for example, as the highest form of spirituality, we take the community out of the equation, which is utterly opposed to Jesus' intent. We are saved into the community. Jesus spent 40 days in fasting and solitude, but that was to prepare for a ministry that changed the world. He didn't come to earth to fast. He fasted to be ready for why he came. And after fasting, he immediately formed a community and ministered in community.

Just so, during his ministry Jesus withdrew at times away from the crowds. He was fully incarnate and he needed a break. And we need to be careful that we don't work so hard in the Kingdom that we destroy our health. We need to take breaks. Solitude and silence may well be needed at times so we can have some personal "God time" to build ourselves up for the challenges of ministry. But again, these are disciplines that should prepare us for our purpose. They are not themselves our purpose.

Therefore, while I certainly don't oppose fasting, solitude, etc., I just think the goal is for us to be a city on a hill that shines so brightly it cannot be hidden. If fasting helps us be that, then we need to fast. But we don't fast for the intrinsic merit in fasting.

Colossians 2:20-23 is clear in stating that abuse of the body and the following of rules such as "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" have no "value in restraining sensual indulgence."

I also view the "physical training" mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:8 as being the physical disciplines such as fasting (not a workout at the gym, as most people imagine). This type of discipline (training), Paul says, has "some value" – but "godliness has value for all things."

Yet, it is evident that Jesus expected His servants to fast. Matthew 6:16 does not say "If you fast," but "When you fast…."

Richard Foster and Dallas Willard have written extensively about the place of "the spiritual disciplines" in spiritual formation. These disciplines include, but are not limited to, fasting, Scripture reading, prayer, meditation, solitude, silence, and many others.

What is your take on how these, especially fasting, solitude, and silence fit into spiritual formation?