An Ever-Present Enemy

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. - Luke 4:13 (NIV)

Luke provides an account of the devil, Satan, Lucifer, the prince of the earth, the fallen angel, completing his attempts to tempt Jesus in the wilderness and departing from Him. James spoke of submitting ourselves to the Lord and having the devil flee from us. The NIV ends Luke 4:13 with "... he left him until an opportune time." He wasn't done with Jesus then.  He's not done with us now.

If his main job is to steal and destroy, he's not even close to being done with us. He wants our joy.  Do we still have children? He wants to steal our joy. Are we still smiling and laughing in spite of the tears and the heartache? He wants our joy. He won't be done until we are left with nothing and no one. He still seeks that opportune time to sneak up and snatch our joy.

Watch out. He's not done.