What AI Isn’t Telling You about Eternity

Two weeks after her thirtieth birthday, a friend from church sent me a voice message saying she had asked ChatGPT to plan the rest of her life. She’d typed her testimony into the submission box, included details about her personality, and added career aspirations she wanted to achieve. Then she pressed submit. As she scrolled through the results—a five-year plan and predictions for her entire future—she became emotional.

I paused her voice message and pulled up ChatGPT on my own computer, entering a similar prompt. As I read through the list of opening questions––an assortment of bullet points asking about my long-term goals, success, and what matters most––I saw what AI had offered her: 

Hope. Assurance. A roadmap to everything she wanted in life, professionally and personally. 

With one button, she’d been handed a digital map connecting the dots leading to all the places she longed to reach. More than that, she’d received what felt like promises.

Here’s how to get everything you ever wanted.
Here are the ways your hard work, waiting, and heartbreak will pay off.
Here’s what your dreams will look like when they come true.

Was it wrong to use technology to help plan out where she wanted her life to go? Not necessarily. God alone determines our days (Job 14:5), so while AI has no authority to guarantee tomorrow, it could potentially help us be wise about how we order the time He has given us.

But as I listened to my friend, I couldn’t stop thinking that all of the plans she had been given had been calculated without taking into account one key reality. ChatGPT could not foresee that the actual finish line of my friend’s life would notbe a résumé full of accomplishments, but the moment she finally sees Jesus face to face.

He, after all, is the endpoint. But ChatGPT missed the reality of eternity with Him in a way that we often do as we look ahead at what we want most for our lives. We believe we’re living intentionally when we prepare for what’s ahead, but our daydreams about the future still tend to be too shortsighted. We are comforted by the illusion of control and certainty while our hearts stay asleep to the true hope of the eternal. 

My concern for my friend wasn’t that none of her plans would come true. My fear was that she’d figure out how to get everything she wanted out of life but miss Jesus along the way.

As I started a new message back to her, I tried to find the words to discuss what AI hadn’t addressed: “If your time on earth ended halfway through your five-year plan, would being home with Jesus be the fulfillment of your deepest desires, or would it feel more like a disruption to your dreams?” 

A New Path and a New Plan

In the midst of that conversation, my mind kept returning to the study of 1 Thessalonians we had been part of with a group of single adults from our church. The book suddenly felt relevant in a fresh way.

The first chapter begins with a picture of a community transformed: Paul commends the believers and celebrates the ways they had both modeled the gospel (1:7) and become messengers of it (1:8). Their reputation had spread, and their story was being retold by others: 

For they themselves report . . . how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thess. 1:9–10)

The gospel hadn’t resulted in a slight adjustment to their life; it had demanded an entirely new direction, coming to their community not just with words, “but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1:5). It impacted their present, as they began to live in service to the living and true God, but it also gave them a future their old plans could never have promised: not just a better one, but a future life with Christ. 

If your dream five-year plan was laid out in front of you, whether you wrote it yourself or asked ChatGPT to imagine one for you, would it reflect the testimonies of both verses 9 and 10? Would it say . . . 

• “[She] turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (v. 9). 

She no longer lived with the same motivations that once defined her; she was no longer driven by self-fulfillment, security, or fleeting success. She worked at all she did with all her heart (Col. 3:23–24), but she loosened her grip on what she once thought would make her whole—no longer living for approval, control, or comfort. She sought to honor God with her time, talents, and energy, and she made it her ambition “to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind [her] own business, and to work with [her] own hands” (1 Thess. 4:11), ultimately believing her reward would come from Him. 

• “[She] turned to God . . . to wait for his Son from heaven” (v. 10). 

Her deepest anticipation and what she longed for most wasn’t a ring on her finger, a family filled with kids, a number in her bank account, or a career accomplishment. She didn’t just fit God into the margins of her life, but she looked forward with great hope that she’d get to run into the arms of Jesus—the fulfillment of every desire her soul longed for, far beyond any earthly gift.

How to Stay Awake 

The Thessalonian believers’ lives had been transformed by the gospel, but Paul knew how easy it would be for them to return to their old way of living. 

Isn’t the same true for us? We can set out fully devoted to Jesus, but slowly slip back into the patterns that pull us away from Him. Or we can begin with a big desire to honor Him for the rest of our life—but we don’t actually know how to do that in small, everyday ways on an ordinary weekday. 

As Paul neared the end of his letter, he gave guidance to the believers, beginning with this call: 

Let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

Spiritually, to “sleep” doesn’t mean you’re participating in obvious sin or outright rebellion. It’s more that you fall into spiritual lethargy. Indifference. Distraction. Paul wasn’t just warning against sin but encouraging an alertness to the idols that preoccupy your attention: the achievements, the comfort, and long-term goals that push forever to the background of your thoughts until Jesus feels more like a footnote to your plans than the fulfillment of them.

The danger you face today is the same one they were facing: it’s the temptation to live as if this world is your home and to fall asleep to the hope of what lies beyond. So how do you stay awake when the culture—and its AI technology—sings lullabies of success and self-fulfillment? 

• You remember that you’re loved and chosen by God (1 Thess. 1:4), not defined by what you accomplish. 
• You ground yourself not in human (or AI) messages, but the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13), allowing it to shape your priorities, redefine success, and deepen your love for Jesus beyond any earthly ambition.
• You remain connected to community (1 Thess. 5:11), so you are encouraged to keep your eyes on what’s eternal. 
• You pursue holiness and sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3), engaging the daily discipline of turning from sin and walking in obedience, preparing for Christ’s return. 
• You work diligently (1 Thess. 4:11), trusting that spiritual wakefulness isn’t frantic, but humble and faithful.
• You practice gratitude (1 Thess. 5:18), keeping your eyes on what God is doing rather than your own accomplishments and training yourself to look for His presence and work in the world around you. 

And you wait for Jesus, allowing the reality of eternity to reframe your short-term decisions and long-term goals (1 Thess. 1:10), knowing that the day you’ll see Him will be here sooner than you think.

A Future Only Faith Can See 

ChatGPT gave my friend a future she could map, but it missed what mattered. As followers of Christ, our lives are meant to center on the reality that God has called us to salvation through Jesus, “who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess. 5:10). Eternity with Him is the existence we were made for.

It’s not wrong to daydream about the future you may have on this side of heaven or to use technology to prepare for it wisely. But don’t close your eyes to the reality that you’ll soon be with Jesus and that each day brings you closer to Him. 

AI can’t grasp the glory that’s to come or the perspective that comes with being His. But you can live a life that proclaims Jesus isn’t just part of your future plans—He’s the entire point. 

At True Woman ’25, join thousands of women hungry for truth, revival, and a deeper walk with Christ. Through powerful teaching, heartfelt worship, and unforgettable moments in God’s presence, you’ll be challenged to live surrendered and anchored in His Word. Don’t miss this gathering of women who long to behold the wonder of the Word. Make plans to join us October 2–4, 2025, in Indianapolis. 
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