FWIW, the word Disciple is derived from discipline.
dis·ci·pline (d
s
-pln)
n.1. Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.
2. Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control.
Yes it does benefit us, whether that is our intention or not. If it is done to the Glory of God it cannot help but benefit us.
If we resist the temptation to eat food during a fast, this will enable us to more easily reist other temptations that come to us outside our control. If we learn to give freely to God we will be more likely to give freely to men. While we are to do it to the glory of God, there will be spiritual rewards which come from it. Any time we give glory to God we reap rewards.
In post 445, you wrote...
The intent of any fast is not for the benefit of the faster, imho. It doesn't make him/her more spiritual, insightful, holy, etc.
I answered...
Fasting is for the benefit of the faster. It can bring us closer to God, as in prayer.
"Defraud ye not one the other, except [it be] with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." -- 1 Corinthians 7:5
But this is very different from special dietary laws which Christ says he abolished.
You then said that fasting was to gloify God.
How does fasting glorify God? That is straight from no-meat-on-Friday territory. We're not to make sacrifices at the altar and we're not to keep any dietary laws and we're not to celebrate holidays which no longer pertain to Christians.
That's the point of Hebrews.
Our new birth has released us from all these restrictions. We are free in Christ who performed the ONLY sacrifice necesssary for our salvation.