In these verses, Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to keep their minds on God and not on their problems.
Even though our outward man is perishing, and we go through many trials, God is always going to use what Satan wants to destroy you with, and use it to help you grow spiritually.
God doesn't want His children to suffer, but the fact is that Satan is not going to leave Christians alone until God defeats him. The troubles that we endure build character in us, and gives us patience to endure temptations and trials. What Satan uses to destroy us, God promises to use to build us up!
Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that the thoughts and plans that the Lord has for us are plans of welfare and peace. He wants us to have hope for our final outcome, and that we should know that God is going to take care of us.
The troubles we bear are only for a moment, but the glory they produce in us through God lasts for an eternity!
My prayer for all who read this is that they will look at their trials as a way to grow spiritully, and that they will believe the promises that God gives us, that He always uses the trials we go through, to help us grow spiritually, and that they would know in their hearts that God's outcome for our lives is eternal life with Him, free of pain and sorrow, in Jesus' Name, Amen!
