Its’s a brand-new year, and we are hearing a lot about setting new goals or making resolutions for the year 2022. We all have good intentions, well-thought plans, and start fresh each January on these new goals hoping for outstanding results. But what happens? I can confidently sum up this answer in just one word – LIFE! It happens to us all. Births, deaths, illness, new jobs, financial distress, and detours along our path quickly bring our well-made plans to a screeching halt.

I have had many exciting plans started in my mind including exotic travel, new studies, new friendship, etc., but that is not what I am writing about. I certainly don’t want to minimize the yearly efforts toward becoming a better person because it helps to keep us on track. But I have a lifetime goal that I will not allow anything to deter. No matter what crosses my pathway, I may shed a few tears, endure a little self-pity, maybe even suffer a bout of depression; but I will get back on my feet and point them in the necessary direction to achieve this goal. I renew it every year. I renew it daily!

This lifetime goal is simply to make it to heaven! I may fail at all my other good intentions, but I simply must not be a failure on this journey. My whole life has included the hope of heaven. This hope is so much more than wishful thinking; this hope includes confidence and trust. No one’s journey is perfect – in fact most of us endure a lot of setbacks. But I simply want to encourage you today to get up again and start walking by faith to your heavenly goal. God is right beside you, and His desire is for you to make it. II Peter 3:9 encourages us that He is not willing that any should perish, yet He leaves that choice to us.