Suffering for the Kingdom

Acts 9:15-1615 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

We all love to be chosen vessels, to be called before nations and Kings, we love that we are heirs, sons and daughters, but we are not so keen on suffering for that sonship. Yet this is the inconvenient truth presented to us throughout the Bible.
One of the things I love about the stories of the Old Testament is that when you read about the lives of the heroes like Moses, Joseph, David, Elijah, Gideon through each of those lives you can see the result of the things they went through at work.
In every case I just spoke of, this refining came through their enemies, that the character of God required for them to complete their assignment might be fully formed in them.

Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.