By Yi Xin, Malaysia
Over the time that followed, Yi Xin would gather together with her brothers and sisters to read God’s words and fellowship about their own experiences and knowledge. She was very moved by the experiences of her brothers and sisters and, through God’s words, she came to understand some of the mysteries of life. She discovered that all human pain is caused by the harm of Satan and that only by coming before God and living by God’s words can they rid themselves of that pain. Yi Xin felt enriched living with God’s words to guide her, and both the amount of time she spent playing games and the number of times she played them gradually dropped off. After a while, however, whenever she saw an advertisement for a new video game, she still wanted to click on it and play the game. She would then think of the resolution she had made before God, however, and she would refrain from playing.
One evening, her online gaming group sent her a message telling her that there was a new monster and that they needed her character to join in. If they could defeat this monster, they said, they would win some rare weapons and equipment. When she saw this news, Yi Xin could hardly contain her excitement, and she began to pace back and forth before the computer, feeling very torn: “This is a great opportunity to upgrade our equipment. I can’t miss out on it! But I’ve said a prayer to God telling Him that I wouldn’t play video games anymore. If I play them again, won’t I have lied to God? On the other hand, an online addiction is not something that one can quit in a couple of days. It should be fine just to play them once or twice more. God will forgive me.” Yi Xin was still unable to resist temptation, so she once again switched on the computer and began to play with her online friends, only going to bed the next morning. After she awoke, Yi Xin thought about how she had failed to overcome temptation and she felt an incredible sense of pain and self-reproach. She hated her lack of willpower and wondered how it was that she had fallen back into her old ways so soon.
Later, Yi Xin told Xiao Li about the state she was in and Xiao Li sent her some more passages of God’s words: “How do those games come about? Do they not come from Satan? … This evil world uses all manner of methods to attract people who have not seen through the world and the evil trends of humanity; these are particularly seductive to such people.” “The devil Satan does these things in order to tempt people and bring them to depravation. Those who live in the virtual world have no interest whatsoever in anything to do with the life of normal humanity; they are just not in the mood to work or study. Their only concern is going to the virtual world, as though they are being enticed by something. Whenever they get bored or are in the midst of doing some proper work, they want to play games instead, and gradually, gaming becomes their whole life” (“Believers Must Begin by Seeing Through the World’s Evil Trends”). “What part of man does Satan destroy? (Man’s mind and entire being.) Satan destroys your mind, making you powerless to resist, meaning that, little by little, your heart turns toward Satan in spite of yourself. It instills these things in you every day, every day using these ideas and cultures to influence and groom you, undermining your will little by little, so that eventually you no longer desire to be a good person, so that you no longer wish to stand up for what you call ‘righteousness.’ Unknowingly, you no longer have the willpower to swim against the current, but instead flow along with it. … Each one of these tricks that Satan employs to corrupt man renders man powerless to resist; any one of them can be deadly to man. In other words, anything Satan does and any tricks it employs can cause you to degenerate, can bring you under Satan’s control and can mire you in a quagmire of evil and sin. Such are the tricks Satan employs to corrupt man” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
Xiao Li gave Yi Xin fellowship, saying, “God’s words clearly expose for us the essence of video games. From the outside, it seems as though online games were invented by man, when in truth they are an evil trend that finds its roots in Satan, and they are a means by which Satan controls, harms and devours people. Satan is the archangel who rebelled against God in the very beginning, and after God defeated it and sent it down to earth, it has since been corrupting and harming mankind whom God created. It uses the theories of the great and famous, the spreading of messages through film and television and the impact that our social environment has on us in order to indoctrinate us with such heresies and fallacies as ‘Life is just about eating and dressing,’ ‘Seize the day for pleasure, for life is short,’ and ‘Life is short. Enjoy it while you can,’ so that all of mankind live lives of eating, drinking and merry-making, and so that we become more and more wicked and depraved. Especially in this technologically advanced age, Satan has taken hold of the human mentality that seeks stimulation and that yearns for a supernatural life, it has given rise to this evil trend of online gaming, and it uses this trend to satisfy all the many desires that people have that cannot be realized in real life. In this way, our hearts come entirely under Satan’s control, we lose our autonomy, we lose the correct goals we should be seeking in life, and we end up living in unrealistic fantasies. Just as the words of God reveal, it is like taking a drug; once you start playing then you’re hooked, and the more you play, the more you want to play, until finally you no longer wish to study or go to work, and over time you lose the sort of life a normal person is supposed to have and, in severe cases, you end up being harmed and devoured by Satan. There are many in life who end up being kicked out of school or losing their jobs because they play online games; married couples come to be at loggerheads with one another because one is addicted to online games and the other is not, and many end up getting divorced; and there are even some who actually regard real life as though it were a fantasy world and they do absurd and terrifying things, and they either kill their parents or the people around them thinking that they’re monsters, or they maim or kill themselves. And although we believe in God and read God’s words, and we know clearly that playing video games is a way in which Satan harms us, we still can’t control ourselves and we become mired in the temptations of Satan, we cannot struggle free, and we lose our testimony before God. From this, we can see that video games are not just a harmless means of entertainment but are rather a trap laid for us by Satan, a trap that, once we fall into it, is very difficult to climb back out of. Instead, we just get mired ever deeper until we end up being toyed to death by Satan and completely devoured. Therefore, it is because we don’t understand the truth and cannot see through Satan’s deceitful schemes that we are led by Satan onto this wicked road. We now believe in God, and so we must see things according to God’s words, rely on God to overcome the temptations of Satan, and no longer indulge ourselves or submit to being harmed by Satan.”
God’s words and Xiao Li’s fellowship allowed Yi Xin to understand that online games are actually a means by which Satan corrupts people, and that Satan is there manipulating people behind the scenes. It was no wonder the moment someone started playing video games they became addicted as to a drug, and it became hard for them to quit it. Yi Xin thought back to when she’d started playing games when she had simply been curious about them. But the more she played, the more addicted she had become, and even when she later developed serious illnesses, she still couldn’t quit playing—she had simply become a slave to video games. After she began to believe in God, although she was resolved to reject these games, whenever she encountered Satan’s temptations, she was still unable to control herself and she was duped by Satan over and over because she was under the control of these video games. Just then, Yi Xin saw clearly that Satan uses video games to tempt and corrupt people with the aim of making people become addicted to them, so that they lose the lives that normal people should have, they become more and more degenerate until, finally Satan toys with them and harms them until they die. Yi Xin thought of Satan’s malicious intentions and then she thought of all the pain she had caused herself from playing video games for so many years, and she decided that she no longer wished to be controlled or hurt by Satan.
Afterward, Xiao Li and Yi Xin watched a movie together called Child, Come Back Home. Yi Xin was deeply moved by it. She saw that the experiences of the protagonist Xinguang were just the same as her own, both having been tightly fettered by video games. Xinguang, however, was able to rely on God to utterly cast off the bonds that video games had on him and he embarked upon the path of a life of light; Yi Xin admired him so. She saw this passage of God’s words in the movie: “People should implore God frequently so that they do not fall into temptation and succumb to Satan’s deceptions. In this evil time, in this age infested by devils, you should pray that God’s kindness and protection will be with you often, and that He looks after you and protects you, so that your heart does not leave Him and you strive to be able to worship Him honestly and with all your heart and spirit” (“Believers First Need to See Through the Evil Trends of the World”). God’s words gave Yi Xin faith. She believed God to be almighty and, if the protagonist in the movie could rely on God to quit playing video games, then all she had to do was rely on God and she’d definitely be able to quit her gaming addiction. And so, Yi Xin prayed to God, saying: “O God! I really want to cast off the bonds that video games have on me and I no longer wish to live being toyed with and harmed by Satan. But my stature is so small, I am without the truth, and therefore I am easily deceived by Satan. Please, I ask You to give me the faith and strength I need to enable me to forsake my flesh and not get caught in Satan’s deceitful schemes. I wish to live like a human being by Your words, and if I play video games again, then I ask that You discipline me.”
Over the days that followed, Yi Xin sold her high-spec computer and her gaming console and replaced them with a normal computer that could not play games. Furthermore, she persisted with reading God’s words and praying to God, she continued to attend gatherings with her brothers and sisters to fellowship God’s words, and she focused on establishing a normal relationship with God. As time wore on, her desire to play video games fell away.
Later, because she had to learn a new profession in her company, Yi Xin had to watch some videos, and while they were playing, each and every video would show links or adverts for online games. Sometimes, Yi Xin couldn’t help herself and wanted to click on them just to see what they were about. One time, when Yi Xin was looking for a video, a link for a video game caught her eye, and she thought: “It’s OK if I just take a quick look. I’ll just look this once and not again.” Yi Xin then clicked on the link to enter the website. Not long after she’d entered the website, however, to her surprise she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart. She hurriedly closed the browser window, and she realized with crystal clarity that this was God disciplining her. She saw that, although she had been deeply poisoned by video games, she still did not have the determination to forsake Satan. She had made a resolution before God and then had broken her resolution, and yet God did not give up trying to save her. Instead, God had used His discipline as a way to remind her, so that she would gradually rid herself of the bonds and control of video games, and no longer be corrupted and harmed by Satan. She was filled with gratitude to God, and she became determined to rely on God to get online gaming out of her life for good, and so that she would not rebel against or grieve God ever again.
Later on, Yi Xin remembered that she was still part of an online gaming group of which she’d been a member since she was a child. Every time she went to work, they would send her messages which distracted her mind, and so she felt that she ought to leave this group. Just when she’d made up her mind to do this, however, she hesitated: “These people have been my friends for over 10 years. Should I really break with them in this way?” Yi Xin felt reluctant to take this course of action, but just then these words of God came into her mind: “Do not engage with anything that pulls your heart toward external matters, or with people who separate your heart from God. Whatever it is that can distract your heart from being close to God, put it aside, or stay away from it. This is of greater benefit to your life” (“On Quieting Your Heart Before God”). Yi Xin then understood that keeping her distance from her online gaming group would be good for her breaking her gaming addiction and also for her life growth. And so, she sent her group a message that said: “I’m a Christian now and I have to attend church gatherings from now on. I won’t be playing games anymore, so please don’t send me any invites from now on!” She then left the gaming group which had been her constant companion for over 10 years.
After that, whenever an advert link for a video game popped onto her computer screen, Yi Xin would think, “This is a temptation of Satan, and it is one of Satan’s deceitful schemes.” At the same time, she realized that God was by her side watching over her. She no longer wanted to be toyed with or harmed by Satan, or to make God grieved and disappointed, and so she would skip past the ad links, and she remained resolved not to look at them. Whenever she heard her workmates discussing video games, she would keep calling on God in her heart, asking Him to protect her and enable her to overcome the seductions and temptations of Satan. After a while, Yi Xin discovered that video games no longer held as much attraction for her as they used to. Whenever she had the time, she would be quiet before God and read God’s words or else gather together with her brothers and sisters and perform their spiritual devotions. Her life had a pattern to it, she was healthy, and her efficiency at work increased as well. Now, whenever Yi Xin sees a video game, she feels no desire to play it whatsoever.
Through her experiences, Yi Xin came to appreciate God’s true love for people, and she saw God’s beautiful and good essence. Even more so, she perceived the authority and power held by God’s words. Besides God, no one and no educational organization could have saved her from the bonds of online gaming or rid her of the corruption and harm of Satan. Just as God’s words say, “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk through life on the righteous path of light; only through God can you know the meaning of life; only through God can you live out real humanity and both possess and know the truth. Only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer. This is determined by the essence of God. Only God Himself saves you so selflessly; only God is ultimately responsible for your future, for your destiny and for your life, and He arranges all things for you. This is something that nothing created or non-created can achieve” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). Now, Yi Xin is absolutely certain that the only correct goal to pursue in life is to believe in God, follow God, read God’s words and pursue the truth, and her determination to follow God is greater than ever!
The End.
