How Does Satan Tempt People?
Q: How does Satan tempt people?
Satan tempts people through their lusts, needs and wants. If you’re hungry and need to eat, that’s an avenue for the tempter. If you’re in debt and need to pay your bills, the tempter can leverage that. Besides needs and wants, the avenue in which he’s most successful is leveraging the lusts of people; lusts for power, fame, money, sexual immorality, the opposite sex, etc. James 1:13-15.
You can’t tempt a goat with a bag of cash, but you can tempt a goat with yam. You can’t tempt a monkey with a brand-new Lamborghini, but you can tempt a monkey with a banana. Satan won’t tempt you with what you don’t eat or what you don’t desire. He has to use what you desire as bait to get you into his trap. Just as those driven by the love of money will fall into many snares (traps), all who have ungodly desires are bound to fall into the enemy’s traps through temptation.
Read 1 John 2:15-16, Matthew 4:2-4, 1 Timothy 6:9-10, Proverbs 7:21-23, Genesis 3:6, Proverbs 14:12, Matthew 26:41.