Marsha's Musings: Afflictions; Things not Seen

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

 8 ¶ We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--

 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

God afflicts us and allows us to be weak for a number of reasons.

1. That His power might shine through my weakness
2. That I might depend on God and not myself
3. That I might keep my perspective on heaven and not be attached to this world
4. That I might remember that my trials and a mere drop in the bucket of the whole of eternity
5. That I might be a partaker in the sufferings of Christ
6. That I might keep His statutes (Psalm 119:67,71,75)

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(NKJV)

Verse 18 reminds me of Hebrews 11:1.  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."