If our goal is to get to heaven, to spend eternity with God and our Savior Jesus Christ and this is our only eternally-based goal, shouldn’t we have a business plan in place that will lead us to that goal? 

In life, we often have plans and goals set out for ourselves.  We plan for education, we plan for our career, we plan our marriage, we plan when we want to have children, we plan for our fitness goals, we plan how we are going to eat, and we plan our retirement.  I’d like for you to take notice that all these plans are superficial and only about us.  This is the way of the world we live in: education, success, career, family, and retirement.  I mean what else is the world going to focus on?  The Bible does say that this world has cravings like the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.  So if you base your life plan off those lusts, then yes you would strive to accomplish those goals.

We have to look at the whole picture here.  I want you to imagine 1 inch, now compare that inch to 1 mile.  This inch is the time we have here on this earth, our life, probably 70-90 years and the mile represents our eternal life for it is forever.  Why do we spend so much time trying to figure out and planning this one-inch slot, when the time we spend in eternity is infinite?  It seems people just really don’t think that the 1 mile is more important than the inch. 

A lot of us have been fooled by the devil.  He has given you a life free of trouble, so you don’t need to turn to God.  The only problem with that is, as we live in our sin, our sin is likened to a nice and comfy jail cell.  We have all the necessities, we have our education, our career, our steady income, insurance, and retirement all in place.  We have our inch all planned out and we are comfortable for this is the world’s deceptive trap.  Now the jail cell is wide open and you can leave at any time, but then again, you are all comfy with what you have built for yourself.  So there is really no reason to leave, until one day, the cell door will slam shut and suddenly it’s too late.  This is my plead to you that if you’re this person, all comfy and there seems to be no reason to reach out to God, wake up and shake off the deception!  Remove your blinders from Satan and realize you need a Savior and He has come to die for your sins, all you need to do is accept Him and obey Him.

What we need to do as Christians is look at our whole eternal life, the one promised to us by God, by our Savior Jesus, and plan for that.  These measly 70 years on this planet are but a vapor, they are seconds to God.  What we need to come up with is our plan for our eternal life.  Let’s search the scriptures and see if we can get some insight as to what we should be planning to accomplish, our goal of spending eternity with God and Jesus in the heavenly realms.  What does the Bible say about what we should be doing with our lives?  Let’s dive in and see.  God tells us to meditate day and night on His Word. 

Psalm 1:2 “But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.”

To meditate: think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time.

So, according to God’s Word, we are to meditate, think deeply, and focus our mind for a period of time during the day and during the night.  We are also told to not only believe in but to be obedient to what Jesus came to preach.  We must do the will of the Father which is to be obedient.  Let’s look at John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life, that seems pretty simple and believe it or not that’s what most Christians do is just believe.  They seem to have stopped there and just continued on with their lives.  Let’s keep reading in John 3:36 “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

So as we continue reading in John it says that anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but remains under God’s angry judgment.  Do you see here, the verbiage suggests that we must not only believe but that we also must obey Jesus in order for us to receive eternal life?  Okay so now we are starting to establish the start of our eternal life plan.  So far from the scriptures, we have to one meditate on God’s Word daily, two we must believe in Jesus, and three we must obey Him.

What is meditating in the Word going to do for us you may ask?  It will bring you into a closer relationship with our Lord and Savior by way of understanding.  You will start to understand Him and start to learn His ways.  You will learn what to do and what not to do.  Along with these start-up goals, we will need to set some other goals.  One that comes to mind is we need to separate from the world. 

God tells us in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

He also tells us in Psalm 1:1 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!”  For one to walk in the counsel of the wicked, you would have to do what?  To take the advice of the ungodly or listen to the ungodly counsel us on how to live or to act.  This is straight up foolishness.  We are told not to do that.

Do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, there is so much more to this.  Think about this: we have children, then we take our precious masterpieces that God hand-formed and what do we do with them?  Hand them off to babysitters, people we don’t know, wicked people to watch for us, so we can what?  Make money, for what, the lusts of this world?  Shame on us.  Then we pack them up and send them off on buses full of ungodly children who are evil in their thoughts and we send them to public schools or private school so they can be counseled by the wicked and walk in paths of the ungodly sinners.  Are we out of our minds?  I mean come on!  Don’t you think if God Himself tells us “Do not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand on the pathway of the sinners” that He might be telling that to us for a reason?

Yes, the reason He tells us this is because it will influence you away from God and you will align with the wicked, evil sinners instead of God’s thoughts.  I mean just look at how many kids/youth do drugs?  25-40 percent of 7^th-12^th graders, or people aged 12-20, drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the USA.  80% of young people in Middle School and High School are having sex.  2 million kids are arrested in the USA a year.  1 million teens have abortions per year and we think we should send our children to public schools or have secular, worldly friends?  You’re taking a chance with your children by allowing them to do the very thing our Lord has instructed us not to.

We are also told not to stand in the path of the sinner.  This is referring to unsaved, non-Christians who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior and are still separated from God, living in sin.  These individuals have paths they have created in this world, business paths, success paths, entertainment paths, career paths, relationship paths, wealth paths, investment paths, life paths, paths to worldly happiness, paths to a better you, paths on dating, on school, on sports, on health, on physical fitness, just about every path you can think of.  These sinners have hundreds, even thousands upon thousands of paths that “we are not to stand in or on.”

So to be clear, we are instructed by God to not, I repeat do not walk with, sit with, stand in, or take counsel from the wicked or the ungodly and we are to not to walk in, stand in, or go travel down the sinner’s path because that will be harmful to us.  These are God’s words and must be obeyed.

God goes on telling us what to do instead of those things, to meditate in His Word day and night, to make the Lord your delight.  If we do this, our God will have us planted firmly like a tree that is planted by a stream or river, we will yield fruit in our due season.  Our leaves will not wither and all that we do will prosper.

The Lord thinks about you all the time, so keep your mind on Him and His will and He will make your path straight.

Psalm 139:19-24 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!  Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!  20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.  21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?  22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.  23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 

David shows his emotions about the wicked.  He pleads for God to remove them from His life.  He hates evil.  He hates blasphemers.  David hates with a passion, God’s enemies.  “An enemy of God is an enemy of mine,” he says.  We hate the sin but still must love the sinner.  Hope and pray they come to Him, but hate the sin act.  David says to seek me thoroughly and point out any flaws and sin you want removed.  Make me clean Lord, cleanse me Father and move me how you wish.

As we continue reading in Psalms 1:1-6:

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.  2 But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.  3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.  Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.  4 But not the wicked!  They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.  5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment.  Sinners will have no place among the godly.  6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

When I first became a Christian, I did not fully comprehend this concept, but as I became a more seasoned Christian, the understanding became clearer, and clearer, and clearer.  God puts people into two categories; the first category would be the people who have believed and obey the word of God.  These are the children of God who have been born again, true authentic Christians who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.  These people have their names written in the lamb’s book of life, which are going to heaven, period.  These people have been chosen.  The Bible says that many have been called, but only a few have been chosen.

The second category that one can find themselves in would be the “ungodly”, “the unsaved”, “enemy of God”, “the wicked”, anyone who does not believe in our Savior Jesus Christ, anyone who ridicules our God or mocks Him, people who live in sin according to the Word of God.  This way is complete rebellion and leads to destruction.

This verse is giving us instruction on who not to be walking with, who not to hang out with, and who not to fellowship with.  Now don’t get me wrong because far too often I hear, “Well, Jesus hung out with sinners,” and yes you are right, but only to witness to them not to just be “buddy buddy” with them and do what they do.  It’s very clear that we as “saved Christians” are not to fellowship with, be friends with, or be like the people of the world.

When Christians start hanging out with non-Christians, that’s when the Christian can start to compromise their walk and fall victim to the slowly conforming to the ways of the world, because for certain an unbeliever’s life is only to glorify them.  Their lives are meaningless and the Bible says in Psalm 1:4 that their life is “like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind” and they will be condemned at the time of judgment.

This verse is very important for us parents that we know that our children can be wrongly influenced by these wicked people, especially in school settings.  This verse must be applied to all people especially the ones in your children’s lives.

Let’s move on to our next verse.  Psalm 1:2 “But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.”  They think about His law day and night.  However, they don’t just meditate on it, or think about it they also delight in it.  They take great pleasure in following the law of the Lord.  As Christians, it is not a burden to follow God, but a delight to obey Him in everything that we do.  So to make our eternal plan really simple, what we need to do as born again believers is #1 Meditate on God’s word day and night, #2 Believe and Obey the Living Word of God, and #3 Do not be conformed to the ways of this world.  You do these simple things and your eternity is and will be secure with God in Heaven.