starting point

What is your starting point and your motivation behind everything that you do? Do you have Christ in mind or your desires?

Solomon was one of the most influential people during his life. The man had it all.

I undertook great projects: I build houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought myself male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired make and male singers, and a harem as well - the delights of a mans heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 
(Ecclesiastes 2:4-9)

Anything that Solomon felt like doing, he had the ability to do. I can't imagine what his property must have looked like.

Solomon continues to write...

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve, 
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun. 
(Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

Even after all that Solomon had...he compared his experience to a chasing after the wind. No matter how hard he tried or how much he acquired he could never find the feeling he thought those things would bring him.

In Psalm 127:1 Solomon writes: Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand and watch in vain. 

Unless the Lord is fully in control of your life, we are going to be chasing after the wind and he will never get the feeling we expect our desires to fuel us with. So my one thing for you is to keep the Lord in mind. As you examine your projects or goals, what is your starting point, your motivation? Without God as your foundation, all you are living for is meaningless.