Jesus met Satan in the wilderness to show you how to resist temptation. Before Jesus' example, humans had little to no power over temptation; we did not understand its methods or purposes.
TEMPTATION WILL CAUSE YOU TO CHALLENGE GOD
Standing in the wilderness, Satan told Jesus to command stones to turn into bread. This is temptation's outright attempt to get you to abandon your faith in God. Satan wanted to make Jesus look like a fool; humans cannot turn stones into bread. Immediately we learn that Satan has a penchant for twisting scripture, for neglecting its spiritual significance and often figurative nature. Jesus taught His disciples that God's children live by His word more than by bread. He meant that God sustains their souls and organizes the circumstances in their life that keep them fed and whole, literally and figuratively.
But temptation's first method to get you to challenge God is even deeper than that. Every human has a circumstance in life they become frustrated with. Temptation wants you to turn your frustration with the situation into frustration with God. Temptation attempts to overthrow God's authority in your life. It wants you to decide that His refusal to perform a specific miracle in your life is an admission of His inability or worse, His unwillingness.
Temptation knows that within a person's faith is a certain amount of trust in God and patience for His timing. Temptation decides to determine exactly how much trust and patience you have. In a moment of some figurative hunger of yours, temptation will speak to you. It will try to convince you to doubt God's love, doubt God's timing, doubt God's ability, doubt God's willingness, and doubt God's power. Jesus refused to do any of that; He knew that no hunger could be filled without God. Jesus did not abandon His faith in God even though it meant He would be hungry a little longer. Jesus chose to wait for God's resolution and the spiritual feast He trusted God to prepare in the perfect time.
TEMPTATION WILL PERSUADE YOU TO DOUBT GOD
Satan brought Jesus up to the pinnacle of a temple and told Him to jump off. Satan then used and manipulated a piece of scripture to persuade Jesus to do so (Psalm 91:11). In effect, Satan said: God told You that He would protect Your ways, therefore You can live recklessly and without purpose, without consequence.
This literal situation neglected the spiritual significance of the verse. But Jesus' response corrected that. Jesus refused not only to doubt that God could save Him, but He also refused to live recklessly and without purpose. Jesus knew that God's promise of protection was ordained for the purpose of the perpetuation of the kingdom. We have the protection of God as we go about the way of purposeful righteousness. He does not protect us so that we can live recklessly, chaotically and without beneficial impact. Our enemy is a force in the world, a force of evil and as long as we fight against it, we will not fall from the pinnacle of the temple.
This is temptation's second and focused effort to stamp out your faith. It wants you to waste your faith, to doubt your God at the first instance of fear. It wants you to misunderstand scripture and thus the meaning of God's promises to you. It wants you to live hastily instead of waiting patiently on God's timing. In moments of fear and indecision, it wants you to leap prematurely into the wrong decision. Temptation wants you to determine that God's word has no credibility, because if it can do that, you will place your faith in it and it will have conquered you.
TEMPTATION WILL MAKE AN OFFER YOU'LL STRUGGLE TO REFUSE
Satan promised Jesus the world if only He would bow to him. This is the third method in temptation's scheme: since it could not challenge your faith, temptation will target your appetite for material wealth, position, and/or power. Temptation wants to be your master. It wants you as its slave; it resents your freedom in God. To possess you, it will offer you possessions. It has no intention of fulfilling its offers, nor does it have the actual ability to. It will make the offer anyway.
Do not doubt that temptation is persuasive. Do not assume that your faith is necessarily bigger than your appetite. There might be a price or prize you would abandon your faith for. Perhaps not all at once, but overtime, you could start to commit yourself to a new purpose, a new ideology and one that is separate from God. Any time we defy a commandment of God, a principle written in scripture, we separate ourselves from God and align ourselves with our desire. Expect that temptation's offer will be difficult to refuse! It will dangle such a treat before your eyes. Trust that if God wanted you to have it, you would have it or eventually will! How do you determine if something is from God? It will be delivered to you. The process will be smooth and steady. You will put in hard work but harder faith. You will not have to compromise your values for it. It will be propelled by love not lust. It will stand on faith not fear. You will not have to chase it or restrain it. Temptation will make a grand offer but it will be tainted. It will be hard. It will not last.
Temptation does not have the ability or intention to fulfill its grand offer with any permanence or quality. It does not want to fill or please or satisfy or bless you. It just wants you. It wants to claim you and declare its victory on the corpse of your faith. What do you want? Do you have an appetite for wealth? Do you have an appetite for fame, respect, or even reverence? Do you have an appetite for power or property? Whatever your body desires, temptation will offer it. It will rotate in front of you as if on a rotisserie; and dripping off of the prize is your faith that God can provide it what you need. Like Jesus, you have to know that only God knows what is best for you and when it is best for you to have it. Like Jesus, you have to know that nobody, nothing can offer you the world because the world belongs to God. You must decide what is bigger: your faith or your appetite. You must decide what has more power over you: your faith or your appetite.
Jesus rebuked Satan and did not succumb to temptation. He refused to become a slave to temptation, to material wealth and power, and thus resisted both death and slavery. Jesus knew that there was only One Entity worthy of servitude, only One Entity capable of fulfillment, only One Entity with selfless, just intentions: God.