I've read a few very helpful ones lately, but the one I had in mind was The Prodigal God, by Tim Keller. It is a very short book, based on the story commonly known as the Prodigal Son.
For me, the most convicting part came in Keller's discussion of the older brother in the story. He made a number of good points, each illustrating how the elder brother views himself through the lens of performance. For instance, here is how the elder brother type responds to the success of others:
"Like Peter [in a brief illustration just related by Keller] elder brothers expect their goodness to pay off, and if it doesn't, there is confusion and rage. If you think goodness and decency is the way to merit a good life from God, you will be eaten up with anger, since life never goes as we wish. You will always feel you are owed more than you are getting. You will always see someone doing better than you in some aspect of life and will ask, 'Why this person and not me? After all I've done!' This resentment is your own fault. It is caused not by the prosperity of the other person but by your own effort to control life through your performance. The strong undertow of anger this causes may not turn you into a murderer, as it did Salieri [another illustration given earlier], but it will constantly cause you to lose your footing in various ways" (pp 52-53).
I plan to blog more about this in the future. Needless to say, I think the book is very worthwhile.
JLM