Fasting can be hard. This video seems to be the only artistic collage of fasting.
Fasting can be hard, even extreme. This 3:41-minute video beautifully captures in art an episode of extreme fasting in total isolation and deprivation. Watch it and read the accompanying article within. Then ponder, "How? ...Why? What is that about?"
One of the greatest preachers of the first millennium was John Chrysostom, the bishop of Constantinople in the fourth century. He has left us one of the most sweeping statements about the value of fasting. He was known as an ascetic in an age of luxury in Constantinople and his lifestyle offended the emperor Arcadius and his wife Eudoxia so much that he was eventually banished and died in AD 407. Of fasting he said,
"Fasting is, as much as lies in us, an imitation of the angels, a condemning of things present, a school of prayer, a nour-ishment of the soul, a bridle of the mouth, an abatement of concupiscence: it mollifies rage, it appeases anger, it calms the tempests of nature, it excites reason, it clears the mind, it disburdens the flesh, it chases away night-pollutions, it frees from head-ache. By fasting, a man gets composed behaviour, free utterance of his tongue, right apprehensions of his mind."
Not all of those accolades are true for everyone in every time of fasting. For example, for some fasting will cause a headache rather than take it away. But...Chrysostom and thousands of believers have proved the value of the Lord’s prophecy: "When the Bride- groom is taken away [Jesus], then the disciples will fast." (-words of Jesus as narrated by his Apostle Matthew 9:15, Injeel). https://www.esv.org/Matthew+9/
But...there is danger in fasting. I don’t mean physical danger— you can avoid that if you follow simple guidelines. ...What I mean is spiritual dangers. You can fast in a way that will be very displeasing to the Lord and spiritually destructive to yourself. Jesus warned us that this was so. If you fast, for example, to be seen by other people, he said, you have your reward from them, and you will not be answered by God the Father. To prove our hearts he said that we should take steps not to be seen by others, but only by God: comb your hair, wash your face, and do not put on a gloomy countenance. Then — if your motives are pure — your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (-words of Jesus as narrated by his Apostle Matthew 6:16-18, Injeel). https://www.esv.org/Matthew+6/
Taken from the transcript of a sermon by Rev. John Piper entitled "A Fast for Waters That Do Not Fail", part 1: http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/a-fast-for-waters-that-do-not-fail-part-1