Everyone worships a "god." It may be stuff, money, power, emotion, our loved sports, or a person. The things that occupy our heart and eyes are called our gods.
Tim Keller mentioned in his book, Counterfeit Gods, that the human heart is an "idol-factory." Success, true love, and the life you've always wanted. Many of us place our faith in these things, believing they hold the key to happiness.
Sister Li said that her brother once pursued these gods. He loved on-line games so much that they became everything to him. However, on-line games couldn't meet the actual needs of his life. Therefore, sister Li and her family started praying for and preaching the Gospel to him, hoping that he could know God. "Only by knowing God can a person have true freedom and meaning and can his heart be truly satisfied."
The following is the testimony from Li about her brother
Li's brother is very obstinate. Everyone in the family believed in God except him. In his own words: "The fact that you all believe but me makes me special. I want to be a different person from the rest of you."
He LOVED playing video games and would spend every free minute sitting in front of the computer with a game website open. He had been to church and knew that the church advised otherwise, but he simply chose not to believe.
He was actually very good at playing the games. According to him he was practically unbeatable. However, such "awesomeness" didn't do him any good in the college entrance exam. He inevitably missed the opportunity of going to a good university and ended up in a school that neither he nor the rest of the family was happy with. Even in college he was still the same. According to his roommate, he always rushed to the dorm after class to play on-line games. Even after he graduated and started working, he was still addicted to on-line games.
Because of this, he barely communicated with his family or had any friends. He even said that he would stay single his entire life if his future girlfriend wouldn't support his hobby.
Li and her parents set up a prayer team to pray for his video game addiction
Seeing how Li's brother sat in front of the computer every day, their mother said quietly, "We pray for him, that God must choose and guide him in quitting on-line games."
Li and her parents set up a prayer team without her brother's knowledge. They prayed for him in her parents' room at nine every night. The mom also worked hard in other ways besides prayer. For example, she sought time to read the Bible to him every day, put an audio player on his desk so that he would listen to the hymns, dragged him to Sunday services, and so on.
Her brother went to church reluctantly a few times since he couldn't resist his mom, but he didn't truly accept the faith. He even quarreled with his mom a few times because he believed going to church took up his game time. This lasted a few years and Li's family still kept praying for him and talking him into going to church occasionally. However, just as before he would come home after work and play on-line games.
The turning point came a few years later when Li's brother discovered that his game ID was stolen, along with his elite gear. It was devastating for him. He contacted the game representative and was told that it would take a while to recover all his things. During that time he was also sent to another country to study by his company, and there was no way to play games. He was gone for two months and when he returned, he surprisingly told his family, "I should start going to church regularly."
It turned out that the place he went to was a remote factory remote. One day he was out on a bus and it started to rain heavily. The bus slipped on the mountain pass and almost fell off the slope. Li's brother was terrified, thinking he probably would die in a foreign land. However, there were many local Christians on the bus and they started praying for the dangerous situation. One person saw that he was losing his head so he put his hand on the brother's shoulder and comforted him saying, "Don't be afraid. God will keep you safe." As he spoke, the front wheel was already sinking into the slope and couldn't move. However, when the driver tried accelerating a few times, somehow the wheel moved like there was something holding it up so the bus went up the road. Everyone on the bus stood up clapping their hands and praised God. Even the driver said it was the grace of God.
God listened to their prayer and helped her brother quit playing on-line games
After the incident, though he still didn't understand the faith completely, at least he said, "The moment I thought I would die, it was not the game on my mind but, 'if I die like this, there is nothing left in my life other than games.'"
On his way back, he kept thinking about what his mom said when preaching the Gospel to him: where does man come from? What is the ultimate destination? What is the meaning of being on the earth? What is truly meaningful? After the ID theft and bus sliding incident, he realized that on-line games didn't benefit him in any way or leave him anything meaningful. They even left regret in his life.
Now he goes to Sunday services with his family because his mom said, "the answer to the doubts of life lies in the sermons." As a result, he is very earnest during the sermon and will take notes to ask the pastor. Li's mom once told her that when his faith is more rooted, she would encourage him to serve in the church so that he could understand the truth better.
He still has not followed-up on the ID theft. Instead, he began making friends and socializing in addition to working and going to church.
"On-line games used to be his 'god' and he would fight with those who stopped him," his dad lamented, seeing his change. "Now he has met the true God and finally killed the false one. It is all God's work. Who could accomplish this it weren't for God!"
Translated by Grace Hubl
