Does playing Video games affect our relationship to God?

No materials are by itself a sin. I knife is useful for cutting vegetables but the same knife can be used to kill someone. Wine itself is not a sin but when misused, it is chaos. Sex is not a sin but improper use of sex is a sin. I can't list all examples.

In the same manner, Video Games by themselves are not evil or sin. Misusing them is the cause of problems. Some video games are very useful and helpful. Strategy Video Games are my favorite. The first time I played Age of Empires, I was completely into it. Later I played Age of Mythology, Stronghold Crusaders, Knights of Honor, War Craft etc. and I still love them. I just wish that I still have time to play them but I don't have time for them anymore. I find strategy games very helpful for training the brain. Some are helpful for studying history and mythology.

We can misuse video games also. On Sunday, instead of going to church, if you play video games at home, that is obviously the instrument of Satan to enslave us with worldly things. Some games have wrong teachings or are too violent, which can transform a person to mindless and violent animal-like human. And I believe there is no need of mentioning Adult Video Games, which are designed only to satisfy sexual fantasies.

Therefore, let us spend more time in prayer and reading Bible, instead of wasting our time on worldly things which cannot give us salvation nor inner peace.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NIV)

Even though I agree that that question is an opinion question, I am going to answer it in my own way, because I feel that it one of our biggest problems in Society.

Satan knows that one of the best ways that he can entrap people and put a wedge between them and their God, to entice them with glitter and peak their desire.

He is also aware that one of his best attractions he can use is the challenge of being the best which man will accept every time it is offered. He not only uses that in things like sports and video games, but he is able to infect churches with it. How often do you see Churches and Pastors brag about their attendance or compare their Baptism numbers.

Competition is not bad within itself, but Satan knows that he can slowly sneak in things which may seen innocuous to start with, but over time he can work them around to desensitize people to not only sin but violence and sexual promiscuity.

We as Christians must never forget that there is a war going on between the forces of good and evil.

That was the reason God made the penalty for disobeying him and gaining the knowledge of good and evil, so stringent.

It was the gaining of the knowledge of good and evil that initiated the war for men's souls.

When God created man, man was perfect in the site of God, and that is why he looked at all he had made and said it was good. Remember that that man was perfect as God originally made him, and that was without the knowledge of Good and Evil.

The knowledge of good and evil within itself is not a sin, sin is disobeying God. What makes the knowledge of good and evil so bad is that Satan as the Prince of the World knows just how to make evil so attractive that it will tempt man away from the Grace of God. We as humans exist because of the grace of God, Since God is omniscient he knew exactly what was going to happen, so it was only because of his great grace that he made the world and man and even gave man the opportunity to go to Heaven for eternity. Heaven would be just fine without even one man or woman we need to be aware that we need God he doesn't need us.

So what does that have to do with your original question?? The reason for saying all of that is to make what I am going to say next make sense.

with the advent of video games Satan had a new and most valuable weapon. The first video games he used were somewhat innocuous that is to say that they started out games like pong and then progressed to Pacman and on to the games of today. What made these games so valuable to Satan was that he could combine dexterity and challenge with sight. He began slowly to build these games from the pong type games to the gore of modern games like we see played today.

For instance Pacman was a tiny step in the direction he wanted to go in that Pacman ate up his opponents, and before you say that's nothing consider that gobbling up the opposition was foriegn to that generation, we did not eat our enemies. So what Satan has done is to slowly desensitize us to violence, death and disobedience to God. We must remember that Man's third sin was murder.

But I will not stop with just video games Satan has used circumstance and greed and quest for power to slowly entice man away from the haven of God's grace. He has made man to kill maim and degrade his fellow man in seeking both power and greed. that's why we have wars and weapons of mass destruction.

And all the While Satan is laughing at how he is able have man rebel against God for such trivial and evaporative possessions, while ignoring the one valuable thing that man could have.

The way I see it, the sin in question here is idolatry.

As with anything we do in life, if we find that it's taking top priority away from God then it will begin to adversely affect our relationship with Him.

I find that to pray about these things helps because this means you're involving God with the pastime rather than shutting Him out. If you're conscious of God in all that you do then you're more likely to do what pleases Him, which may even be to stop playing a particular game! Prayer is a great way of preventing Satan closing the door on God in all aspects of your life.