And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.

Luke 4:1-2

If Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into a 40 days period of continuous testing and temptation in preparation for his ministry, is it not to be expected that we too will be put to the test?

Are we being set up to fail since he was also the Son of God and sinless?

Or do we believe in his complete humanness as well—that he was inflicted with the same degree of temptation that we experience?

Can we even view our addiction in the same light? Didn’t we succumb to our temptation?

Yes, but that’s the point. We need rebirth through grace. We need the salvation that his perfection provides us.

We slipped under our temptations and are not excluded from their experience, but much better—we’re forgiven from them entirely.

Now the path we went down becomes an experiential asset provided we are willing to acknowledge and share it with others.

It should encourage us that Jesus went before us in human suffering so that he truly can empathize with us rather than look down on us.

But there’s always a choice.

Will I be bitter at my circumstance and my past?

Or will I be grateful for my recovery and my future?

God, give me the courage to live with eyes wide open in the present.