Some of Satan's most convincing temptations involve giving us something we want right then. Smokers and drinkers consume such products to gain quick relief from stress, and ironically add to the stress in their life in the process. When we're fasting, we're tempted to break our fast early to immediately satisfy our hunger rather than waiting to fully fulfill the purpose of our fast. And through peer pressure, young people are tempted to do exceptionally foolish things to gain instant popularity or romance or even just attention. People don't like having to wait for things or do without things they want, and Satan plays on that part of the human condition by offering us things that we want in the moment.
God, however, teaches us patience. Of all the blessings He promises us, the best of them only come long after we've qualified for them. Blessings like eternal families and eternal life have their roots in mortality (that is, we have to work for them here and now), but their richest blessings are only realized long after this life is over.
One aspect of the temptation to get what we want right now is that we don't really know what the future holds. We take it on faith that if we live righteously, the afterlife will be better for us than if we don't. Actually, we take it on faith that there even is an afterlife at all, and many of the people who live for the moment claim that there isn't one. They live for the moment because this moment is all we really have. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," and that'll be the end of it. We know that this world is real because we're experiencing it. The next world isn't as readily apparent.
Yet, for those of us who believe, the next world can seem real enough to look forward to (or fear, for us sinners), and most of all, to prepare for. Earth life has lots of get-it-now temptations that can prevent us from reaching the point where we get something even better later on. Eternal life and eternal families depend on living righteously while we're still living. While other people are "enjoying life" and "having fun," we have to maintain higher standards. It's often not what we feel like doing in the moment of temptation, but we know that it's worth it to resist temptations and choose the more (but later) rewarding path. Discipline is the ability to choose what you'll want later over what you want now, and it's the hallmark of a disciple of Christ.
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