Reflection number 2 from The Prodigal God

In case you missed my last post on the subject, I have been reading the wonderful Tim Keller book, The Prodigal God.

Obviously it brought up a lot of questions and reflections and so here is my second one.

Is it better to do something out of duty [but not really want to] that is ultimately good, or to not do something good because you don't want to?

Obviously it is absolutely best to do something good because you desire to but sometimes we don't desire that? How can we be changed to desire to do good things for their own sake more rather than so we can get a moral supriority rush or release the pressure valve on the guilt trip that has been building.

The only firm conclusion I have so far is pray.

[3rd quick reflection, the Prodigal Blog would be a great name for a Blog]

Older and Younger Brothers

Over the last few days I have been reading a lot of Tim Keller's Book "The Prodigal God" Which I whole heartedly recommend.
For those of you who don't know, as I didn't, prodigal originally meant "wasteful, reckless and careless" and yet due to it's association of with the incorrectly named "parable prodigal Son" with "wayward". As Keller points out there are two estranged Son's in the book and from what we read only one of them is reunited with the father. If you haven't read the story you can do so here. If you want to hear Tim Keller talk on it then you can check it out here [sorry it does cost] and if you want to buy the book you can do so here.

There are definitely a few things that I have been meditating on from this so here is my first one.

When the younger brother returns to the father he is setting up a negotiation to earn his way back...the father doesn't accept the negotiation and welcomes him back straight away.

When do I come to God trying to negotiate my way back into his good books?