Temptation

A Contemporary Spiritual Paraphrase by Jon Jelfs

After his baptism in the Jordan Jesus was continuously experiencing a sense of God’s Presence. He felt drawn to spend time in the desert and this turned out to be about 40 days during which time he hardly ate. This was a time of great soul searching for him; you could say he was wrestling with his demons, the deepest most instinctual urges within the human ego. These were some of his thoughts:

It seems I’ve been chosen by God, his presence seems so real, perhaps I could even turn these stones into bread. The he remembered – “people can’t live by bread alone”.

Looking down from a mountain he imagined he could see the whole world. He thought to himself “if only all of this was mine, it could be mine, I could control it all”. The he remembered, the greatest good is done when we align ourselves with God, the loving creative energy of the universe.  

Then in his imagination he saw the temple in Jerusalem, the focal point of Jewish life and culture. “Perhaps if I went to the temple, I could leap from the highest point. Surely if God really loves me the angels would protect me and I would never have any doubts again and everyone would know how important I am.” But then he remembered, “don’t be so foolish as to put God to the test”. 
This was a difficult time, going deeply into all these thoughts but as he let go of each one he came to a place of peace, clarity and purpose.