Questions for gamers

[thesunisout]

There is a debate among Christians about whether gaming is something God would approve of or not. I think the only question you need to ask yourself is, have I made video games my idol?

Do you spend more time thinking about video games than you do about God? Then video games are your idol.

Do you spend more time playing video games than you give to God in your life? Then video games are your idol.

Do you talk more to people about video games than you do about Jesus Christ? Then video games are your idol.

Do you get more excited about video games than you do spending time with God? (reading the bible, prayer, going to church, etc) Then video games are your idol.

Is it wrong to play video games? Not inherently. Is it wrong to spend more time and energy on them than you do God? Do I even need to answer that?

1 John 2:15

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 

[derek W L]

edit

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

I think I'm tired of seeing threads with the exact same topic 5 times on page 1.

 

[StickwithJesus]

I've never thought about this.

Thank you for making this

 

[thesunisout]

You're welcome. The time that God gives us here is a gift and we need to invest it wisely. God gave us a great salvation and He expects us to obey His commands first and foremost. The greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. We tend to spend our time on the things we love the most, and if it isn't God then we are definitely not following the first commandment and we have made something else an idol.

I've never thought about this.

Thank you for making this

 

[StickwithJesus]

You're welcome. The time that God gives us here is a gift and we need to invest it wisely. God gave us a great salvation and He expects us to obey His commands first and foremost. The greatest commandment is to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. We tend to spend our time on the things we love the most, and if it isn't God then we are definitely not following the first commandment and we have made something else an idol.

That surely makes sense; would you pray for me? That I will make God my only idol because I don't want to live my life walking away from God

Thank you for your thoughts

 

[Ice Cream Sandwich]

There is a debate among Christians about whether gaming is something God would approve of or not. I think the only question you need to ask yourself is, have I made video games my idol?

Do you spend more time thinking about video games than you do about God? Then video games are your idol.

Do you spend more time playing video games than you give to God in your life? Then video games are your idol.

Do you talk more to people about video games than you do about Jesus Christ? Then video games are your idol.

Do you get more excited about video games than you do spending time with God? (reading the bible, prayer, going to church, etc) Then video games are your idol.

Is it wrong to play video games? Not inherently. Is it wrong to spend more time and energy on them than you do God? Do I even need to answer that?

1 John 2:15

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Ok? This is a bit 'extreme' that is so much that can fall in being an idol.

 

[StickwithJesus]

I'm not a believer, so I don't know whether that means my opinion carries weight in such a discussion.

Your right; it doesn't. We are discussing this as fellow Christians and the issues we discuss are issues we deal with as Christians; so I don't see how anyone else but yourself will take away something positive from what you've said.

=]

 

[pgp_protector]

According to the OP Breathing Air is my Idol.

Do you spend more time thinking about breathing than you do about God? Then breathing is your idol.

Do you spend more time breathing than you give to God in your life? Then breathing is your idol.

 

[pgp_protector]

Thanks for making me feel so welcome. I'll be leaving this place now, but I'm sure that will matter as much as my opinion.

Don't leave because of one poster please.

FYI I'd say most of your post was right on.

 

[thesunisout]

Of course brother..I will be keeping you in my prayers. If we walk away from the Kingdom of Light, the only thing left is darkness. He said though that nothing can separate us from His love, so trust in Him and He will guide you.

That surely makes sense; would you pray for me? That I will make God my only idol because I don't want to live my life walking away from God

Thank you for your thoughts

 

[thesunisout]

You need to apply a little more discernment than this to the word that has been given here. Breathing is something we do all the time to keep the body alive, and we don't waste time while we're breathing.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, and all of your strength. To love the Lord with all of our being we must invest ourselves completely in doing His will, and living for Him every day. If you aren't doing that, you aren't following the greatest commandment. If you aren't doing that, you love the world more than God. God said if you love the world, His love is not in you.

If you're spending all of your time playing games, talking about games, being excited about games, and thinking about games, that is what you love and that is your idol. This means you worship God with your lips but your heart is far from Him. God wants you to devote yourself to Him and Him only. He wants your whole heart, not the leftovers you give to Him when you go to church.

Ask yourself these questions every day:

Have I done the Lords will today?
Have I made a difference in someones life?
Have I told anyone about Jesus?

Take the commands of the Lord seriously; we are to preach the gospel to everyone. We are to give our lives to the service of Him and to others. You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Entertaining yourself is not on the list of priorities that God gave you.

According to the OP Breathing Air is my Idol.

Do you spend more time thinking about breathing than you do about God? Then breathing is your idol.

Do you spend more time breathing than you give to God in your life? Then breathing is your idol.

 

[StickwithJesus]

According to the OP Breathing Air is my Idol.

Do you spend more time thinking about breathing than you do about God? Then breathing is your idol.

Do you spend more time breathing than you give to God in your life? Then breathing is your idol.

You're seriously taking this out of context. He meant within the realms of free-choice in day-to-day activities.

Don't be nasty x]

 

[Ice Cream Sandwich]

You're seriously taking this out of context. He meant within the realms of free-choice in day-to-day activities.

Don't be nasty x]

Well I understand where he's coming from. This sounds more like a 'rule' than faith.

 

[StickwithJesus]

Well I understand where he's coming from. This sounds more like a 'rule' than faith.

The Bible does seem to frown upon things that take the place of God in our minds.

I think that as a Christian nothing should be more important than God. Even Jesus said so

 

[Ice Cream Sandwich]

The Bible does seem to frown upon things that take the place of God in our minds.

I think that as a Christian nothing should be more important than God. Even Jesus said so

I completely agree with you but if it's that easy than humanity is in trouble. Let's face it, how many of use actually read our bibles and stuff as much as we do anything else. What the OP is saying is playing the game more than reading your bible is idolizing the game or even thinking about gaming is idolizing. Sounds more like the church is trying to dictate whether playing a 'game' is evil.

 

[StickwithJesus]

I completely agree with you but if it's that easy than humanity is in trouble. Let's face it, how many of use actually read our bibles and stuff as much as we do anything else. What the OP is saying is playing the game more than reading your bible is idolizing the game or even thinking about gaming is idolizing. Sounds more like the church is trying to dictate whether playing a 'game' is evil.

Maybe this will make it more clear. When I was about fourteen or around that age I started playing World of Warcraft; after a period of time I became addicted to this game and in the end I had about month of solid game-time clocked on the game. That's about 720 hours I spent on the game; in the end I was listening to a song by Toby Mac where he was singing about how he would give anything up for God and it convicted me to the point where I stopped playing.

The point I'm trying to get to is that World of Warcraft became my life; after school I would only play Wow; I would only think about that game and I loved it. The Bible says you can't serve two masters because you will love one and hate the other; so I had to give it up.

If you have something in your life which withholds you from God then you should give it up like I did; because in the end, what is more valuable than your soul?

It became my idol because I worshiped it; I would talk about it, tell people how awesome it is and think continually about it. It sounds perfectly awful to say but in hindsight I would say that it unconsciously take the place of God to me.

But I think playing a game occasionally or for a little while a day to relax is fine. Just don't let it become an addiction because then you are sinning.

Hoped that helped a little

 

[Ice Cream Sandwich]

Maybe this will make it more clear. When I was about fourteen or around that age I started playing World of Warcraft; after a period of time I became addicted to this game and in the end I had about month of solid game-time clocked on the game. That's about 720 hours I spent on the game; in the end I was listening to a song by Toby Mac where he was singing about how he would give anything up for God and it convicted me to the point where I stopped playing.

The point I'm trying to get to is that World of Warcraft became my life; after school I would only play Wow; I would only think about that game and I loved it. The Bible says you can't serve two masters because you will love one and hate the other; so I had to give it up.

If you have something in your life which withholds you from God then you should give it up like I did; because in the end, what is more valuable than your soul?

It became my idol because I worshiped it; I would talk about it, tell people how awesome it is and think continually about it. It sounds perfectly awful to say but in hindsight I would say that it unconsciously take the place of God to me.

But I think playing a game occasionally or for a little while a day to relax is fine. Just don't let it become an addiction because then you are sinning.

Hoped that helped a little

That's a better explanation. If the game becomes an addiction than it's idolizing. That's not mention in the OP opening response. That needs to be cleaned up because I don't think it's wrong to just play the game when you have time. Sometimes that could be for hours.

 

[mentalkitty789]

There is a debate among Christians about whether gaming is something God would approve of or not. I think the only question you need to ask yourself is, have I made video games my idol?

Do you spend more time thinking about video games than you do about God? Then video games are your idol.

Do you spend more time playing video games than you give to God in your life? Then video games are your idol.

Do you talk more to people about video games than you do about Jesus Christ? Then video games are your idol.

Do you get more excited about video games than you do spending time with God? (reading the bible, prayer, going to church, etc) Then video games are your idol.

Is it wrong to play video games? Not inherently. Is it wrong to spend more time and energy on them than you do God? Do I even need to answer that?

1 John 2:15

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

You could ask that same thing to anyone? Have you made books your idol, sports, movies, ect?

My answer to all of those other questions is yes. I'm a filthy heretic and an atheist though, so what do I know?

 

[thesunisout]

You could ask that same thing to anyone? Have you made books your idol, sports, movies, ect?

My answer to all of those other questions is yes. I'm a filthy heretic and an atheist though, so what do I know?

Well, this should clue you into the fact that we are all built to know and worship God, and in lieu of that, we will direct that worship towards something else. I am sure you have noticed this in our culture, where people worship money, power, celebrity, sex, and a million other things. People are looking for a fulfillment, but this can only come from God. Only God can satisfy the desires of our heart, which are for an eternal satisifaction. This world can not provide that, because everything in it is perishing. Only Jesus Christ can give us rest for the burdens of this world and true satisfaction. In this is peace, contentment, joy, and love.