Great God! I will quote from this sermon and this is just the beginning of what you need to hear.
“God matures Jonah through severe hardship and suffering. Immature Jonah thinks he can flee from the presence of the Lord, then severe suffering, fear, anxiety, and crisis. Immature Jonah then becomes a grateful and mature servant of God. Suffering and hardship are God's chief means to sanctify you these are his tools. That is why we are told to count the cost. If there wasn't any cost what do you want to count. The Christian life is hard. It is not easy gliding into heavenly place, it is hardship, it is persecution, it is suffering, it is molding and shaping, it is rubbing off edges of us; through suffering, through hardship, through loss, through pain, through frustrated expectations, through conflicts, through sleepless nights, through disappointment that is how God turns vile sinners into saints.†|