Yes there is suffering.

There is a reality coming that supersedes by all conception and imagination, this temporal life of exceeding sorrows and fleeting pleasures. Yes, there is suffering involved in resisting the momentary pleasure or the temptations of the flesh. To deny the flesh or the present pleasure is to guarantee more fully the eternal pleasure, which can start today by the way.
Paul said, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8: 16-18.
It seems as if a soul that satisfies the flesh in it’s endless pursuit of physical satisfaction is a soul that is darkened by loss. It weakens the body, it weakens the soul of a man in such a way that his internal strength and power are lost. He cannot even begin to see where He stands in spiritual matters, except in that which will provide work and more pleasures.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23. A spiritual principal is at work here. Whatever you see as a good thing, then it is that thing which you will seek to have. “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6: 21.
Wherever your desires or concept of the good of life, or your summun bonum, then that is the thing that will inspire you and your life will revolve around that very thing. You will seek that thing, desire that thing, yearn and manipulate your life in such a way that you will have and own that thing as yours. Truly there is a small satisfaction involved which quickly fades leaving behind a bigger space that desires to have it again and again. It’s a thirst that can never be quenched.
What is acquired is no more than darkness. Darkness is self-consuming. It reveals nothing of value, it teaches not, shows nothing of itself, or it’s true identity, for if it did then you would see that seeking after the pleasures of this life were not fulfilling, strengthening, edifying or enlarging you, but instead were enslaving, destroying your ability to ever see what is true life. It’s sets you more fully upon a path of loss of life and destruction of an already darkened soul, of which you may never recover and never find eternal life in Christ. There are no death bed conversions. You cannot just say I’m a Christian and not live the life. You will find that you were again deceived by the pleasures of this life and your fate will be set as the Lord seeks to find your name in the Book of Life at the Great White Throne Judgment. Herein I just gave you a clue to your fate and the blindness that lies within and you more than like, if you are not saved, couldn’t even see it. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Today! Now!
On the other hand denial of the flesh is to disallow the degradation of one’s soul and to ‘add to’ instead of taking away from a person’s light and experience of life. Jesus said, that He came to bring life and to bring it more abundantly. The experience of life is wrought in one’s ability to see what life truly is. The experience, the perception, the seeing and understanding of things that one could not see before in their single minded pursuit of pleasures.
For a person to gain a conception of what this new life is, from a darkened perspective of having never seen or even conceived of such a thing is indeed more than a new thought. It’s a revelation of sorts that turns life on it’s head. Yes there is an experience of life that is a million times greater than your present life filled with running from one pleasure to another.
Life is geared towards working, making money, and using the money and free time for the pursuit of pleasures, i.e., drinking, socializing, sex, food, television, movies, new cars, homes and more, more and more of everything. The difference is not in having these things, but, the difference is in the pursuing of these things. When a person gets off work Friday afternoon, he has one thing in mind and that is not to spend time with the Lord in supernatural communion. Instead they pursue pleasure as the opposite of work.
That is the mindset of an old creation. It’s the mindset of a life that is dead to life. It’s serving mammon. You cannot serve God and mammon. You will love the one and hate the other. It’s the life of darkness where one can’t see anything but their own drunken stupor. Drunkenness is not just from alcohol. You can be drunk with the excessive pleasures of food, television, lust, sensuality, anger, envy, and selfish ambition. These are all forms of drunkenness, which with each, individually, are darkness and Oh!, how great the darkness.
Yet the problem is without a sufficient relationship with Christ you cannot get out. You can’t find your way out because of the darkness that is within, which you help to perpetuate. Only Jesus can make you a new creation subsequent to your surrendering your life to Him. There is no other way to pierce the darkness except by Christ, who is the light of the world. Only when you begin to see the light for the first time you will understand that denial of the flesh is the only way to increasing the light. Giving the flesh what it wants only increases the darkness and one’s bondage and slavery to it.
So yes there is suffering in this life, but when one begins to see the light, the glory, power, and advantage one has to walking in that light, you can begin to say as Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” No comparison he said.
The light is worth keeping by experiencing the sufferings of denial. Yet denial will do nothing towards the indulgence of the flesh but can only enhance the Spiritual life, however, only if you have Jesus Christ inside. Otherwise, you are working the works that only bear fruit towards death. You want to make sure your saved. Ask a true Christian, a pastor or a friend. Your eternal life depends on it. You will be leaving here soon, where will you go?