This past weekend we heard the story of Jesus being tempted by the Devil in the desert, and it got me thinking… about how stupid the Devil is. Don’t get me wrong, he’s obviously very skilled and cunning. But stupid nonetheless.
In the midst of temptation, though, it’s sometimes hard to see how stupid he is because we have a bright and shiny object in front of us and we’re blinded by our own desires. I understand that. Trust me, I’m not immune to temptation. But when we’re able to take a step back and look at what he does in trying to tempt us, we see a set of tactics that makes no sense:
- He offers us distorted versions of good things that will not bring us true happiness.
- We are told that its free, but it’s pretty obvious when we have to worship him or deny ourselves that it’s going to cost us much more than we bargained for.
- There is nothing that he can offer us that God has not already offered, in a better version, for free.
So… yeah. Why would we ever make a deal with him? Why would we ever give into his temptations? Truly, I think the only way that anything he offers might seem appealing is if we take our eyes off of God. It is only when we fail to see how good we have it with God, fail to see the gifts placed before us, that we could ever be tempted.
If you want to resist the devil and all his empty promises, do everything you possibly can to keep your attention on God.
Breaking In The Habit 
I think the devil that you are speaking about is none other than the ego. Selfishness is part of our defense mechanism and it can work against us often if we are not aware of it.