Alva Review-Courier -

During the season of the Thanksgiving holiday, we are often encouraged to “be more thankful.” However, there is no need to exhort Christians to be thankful if Christianity is rightly understood, not as something we do for God, but rather, something God has already done for us. Thankfulness is the natural result of the knowledge that God is not asking you to do anything at all, but instead offers you a gift.

It is a natural human tendency to think about our relationship with God in terms of performance and reward. The truth is, however, that God does not relate to us in terms of punishment and...