Fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in Him a source of sustenance beyond food.
We are unceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God's great universe.
The will is transformed by experience, not information.
Play is the creation of value that is not necessary.
Why doesn't God just force us to do the things he knows to be right? It is because that would lose precisely that which he has intended in our creation: freely chosen character.
If we are right on the inside, we will address these issues straight-forwardly and take a stand on them, and, if necessary, die for them. We will be that committed.