Ain't nothing you can do about it

I've understood for a long time that works cannot save you, or as put today, that works cannot put you into the covenant, but the concept that works cannot keep you in the covenant is a concept that I've only recently grasped and even still wrestle with today. I want to do things that will please God and signal that I am a Christian, but I tend to forget that there is nothing I can do to lose my place in the covenant or to make God love me any more or less. Concerning this matter, man I respect greatly once said "God loves you, even when you bring Him nothing."