2018 began with such promise. Somehow turning the calendar to a new year provided you with a fresh slate. You were pumped! You told yourself, “This year is going to be different.” And then, at some point, it wasn’t.

So, here you are again in 2019, poised to make life change a reality. I wonder if, in the back of your mind, you already doubt yourself. Perhaps you’ve already blown it and are ready to give up. Or perhaps you’re just sick of hearing about New Year’s resolutions and can’t wait until February (when most people do give up).

Trust me, I’m not looking to demotivate you with this post. Instead, my goal is to help you see the underlying problem with our goal-setting and encourage you by setting the one goal that matters most.

1. Goals are admission that something’s wrong with us.

We set goals because we know there’s something wrong with our lives. Whether spiritual, physical, financial, relational, or even emotional, all of us believe we can do better and continue to improve. Where does this desire for self-improvement come from? How do we know our lives need to be better?

I believe it’s a reflection of something we lost in the fall. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed Satan’s lie about God, and then put themselves in the place of God by deciding to take matters into their own hands. This is the lie that infects each of our hearts today: “I can’t trust God—and I surely don’t need him to tell me what’s right and wrong.”

And so, it’s in our sinful nature to call our own shots and fruitlessly attempt to prove our worth and right-standing apart from God. Our goals, therefore, are oftentimes a tacit admission that life is a struggle because of our sin (Romans 8:20), and that the ideal we long for often seems just out of reach.

2. The problem with our goals.

Sin also means that the true motivations of our goals are often tainted. This doesn’t mean our goals are necessarily bad things; however, it does usually mean we take good intentions and turn them into idols. Deep down, we seek to derive our ultimate meaning from our goals—something they were never meant to do.

Deep down, we seek to derive our ultimate meaning from our goals

The seminal scene in the Oscar-winning movie Rocky portrays this well. Rocky Balboa, an amateur boxer from the poor streets of Philadelphia, has suddenly been given a shot at the title against reigning champ Apollo Creed. Although Rocky is slow and doesn’t have much of a right jab, he trains hard to prepare himself for the match. On the eve of the fight, Rocky admits to his wife, “I can’t beat him…but if I can go the distance, then I’m gonna know for the first time in my life that I ain’t just another bum from the neighborhood.”

Rocky confesses, “I know there’s something really wrong with me!” and that the way he’ll know he’s okay is by staying on his feet after 13 rounds with the champ. His goal isn’t just a shot at the title, but a chance to prove that his life has cosmic meaning.

While it’s a good thing to train hard and push yourself, a boxing match isn’t meant to define your worth. Nor is a weight loss goal, a financial goal, a relationship goal, a career achievement, or quitting smoking.

Why does God frustrate the plan to build the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11? It wasn’t because he’s opposed to cities or buildings. He’s opposed the motivation behind it: “Let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). Likewise, our goals can appear to be productive, but lurking at the heart of them is a desire for self-glorification and to shape things the way we want them.

When you think about it, this is what causes the problems of our world. A tainted motive to be healthy becomes an obsession with how you look and a tendency to judge others the same way. A corrupted motive to be a good steward becomes miserly greed and treasuring your possessions. The wrong motive to get that promotion leads you to be passive aggressive towards your colleagues.

Our goals can appear to be productive, but lurking at the heart of them is a desire for self-glorification and to shape things the way we want them.

3. The one goal you need to have.

In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us to not lay up treasures on earth, and to not worry about our lives and bodies. Then, he provides clarity to what we should pursue: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Jesus tells us that we weren’t created to live for our own glory. We were designed to glorify God with our lives—and that we will flourish when we do so. Paul Tripp provides a helpful picture from his own battle with weight gain. He put on 40 lbs. because the pleasure of food had too much control over the way he thought about a good meal, day or week.

“Food is meant to be a finger that points me to God, not the thing that satisfies my heart,” said Tripp. “Fad diets never address the true cause of weight gain…It is only when your heart is properly satisfied with God that you now have the power to say no to other things that would tempt you to go there for satisfaction.”

Tripp confessed his pattern of gluttony, and it motivated him to stop seeking satisfaction from food in place of God. “I eat what I need to eat, and I have kept my weight off for four years. And there is just no going back, because it is not just that I eat different things, but the lifestyle of my heart towards food has changed.”

I challenge you to re-examine your goals this year. You may need to trash the list and start over by repenting of sinful failures, asking yourself what it would really look like if you sought God first in your life, and petitioning God in fervent prayer to change the attitude of your heart.

Jesus came to save us not just from sin’s penalty, but also from sin’s power in our daily lives. He is the only one who can make our lives what they ought to be. One of the great things in knowing Christ is that he is going to “fulfill his purpose for me.” (Psalm 1138:8) The work he has begun in us, he will continue until the day of Christ. (Philippians 1:6) All of our goals will be met in perfection as we find our ideal in him who should be the goal of all our goals, and the source of our power to meet them.