Satan is a tempter. Always has been. He appeared in the Garden and worked on Eve quite artfully. She swayed under his spell, sinned against God, and humanity was cursed.  Satan continued to wreak havoc right up to the day Jesus was baptized.  When the Lord retreated to the wilderness for a 40-day fast, Satan had Him in his sights, waiting until the Son of God was vulnerable, hungry, and weak. He told Jesus that if He would worship him, there would be immediate payoffs.  

The enemy doesn’t come at us on a good day, either. He waits until we are compromised, not having slept for a night or two, when we’re down with the flu, or when we’re crushed with crippling disappointment.  We ache for relief and would do about anything to stop the pain.  Satan counts on that.  His temptations offer us a way out early instead of waiting on God. 

The Holy Spirit can teach us how to fight as Jesus did.  Satan comes at us, quoting scripture and presenting spiritual arguments in such a persuasive way that it’s hard to discern if what we’re hearing is a God-breathed idea.  But Jesus promised that we would know His voice, that He’d give us the precise Word to speak to overcome Satan’s hard-to-resist temptation. 

One more thing.  At the end of Jesus’ temptations in the desert, the account in Luke says this.  “When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him [Jesus] until another opportune time.”  What would constitute the next opportune time?  When Jesus was weary after intense times of ministry, after Judas betrayed him, or when his family accused him of demonic possession.  Temptation almost always starts with a need, on a day we’re facing calamity.  Kind David said ~

He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from foes too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.  Psalm 18:17-19