Lent is a time when we are reminded that there is nothing we can do to win our salvation. It is a pure gift from God. Like Jesus in the wilderness, we are to allow God’s plan to unfold in and through us. Lent is a time for us to enter actively into the mysteries of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and there to marvel at what God has done for us. The temptations of Jesus are the same temptations that we face when we are inclined to think that somehow we are in control. While the goals of the temptations may be admirable – feed the hungry, bring the world under the control of good, trust in God’s power to protect us – we often choose to accomplish them in ways that are less than admirable. We try to perform the extraordinary so that what we do reflects favourably on us. We put God to the test rather than live peacefully with God’s plan as it unfolds within and around us. In his responses to the tempter, we see Jesus constantly deferring to the power of God. In a real sense, these temptations are a reminder that the fundamental temptation is to deny our human limitations and refuse to let God be God for us.