No bargaining with God

The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail. If there was any idea that God had set up a sort of exam and that we might get good marks by deserving them, that has to be wiped out. If there was any idea of a sort of bargain—any idea that we could perform our side of the contract and thus put God in our debt so that it was up to Him to perform His side—that has to be wiped out. -- C S Lewis Mere Christianity