Defrosting My Relationships | Northstar Church

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:15-17.

In Frozen, Elsa ran away from her problems rather than facing them. The big emotional arc of the movie involves Elsa conquering and controlling her fear and the impact her decision has on the people and on her sister. The question for today is what is keeping our problems from melting away? What is keeping us from a better relationship with God and the loved ones in our life.

Sometimes it is hard to stay focused on God…at least on a regular basis. It isn’t that we don’t have the best intentions. But sometimes something freezes up or freezes over, or someone makes our blood run cold and boom, we lose sight of God.

If we truly want to find God, we must be willing to do the things that God wants us to do. If we do this, we can start chipping away at the things that separate us from God. Searching for God is like looking for buried treasure. You will never find it waiting at the house for someone to bring it to you. You must go look for it. You must be willing to go to extremes to find it because although we don’t know where the treasure is, we know it is has indescribable value. Looking for a treasure is never a straight line, you will need to change, adapt, refocus any number of times.

Sometimes we are simply too busy to adapt, to change plans, and refocus our efforts. So our connection with God can be temporarily frozen until we find the time to thaw it out.

Frozen gives us one possible solution, although Elsa chose not to take advantage of the solution: seeking the counsel of others. I have learned over my years as pastor that in order to live any life—let alone a busy life—that still has God at the center, we need people who are close to us to help me stay focused on Him. That doesn’t mean that all of our friends need to be Christians—far from it. It does mean, however, that we should aim to have a few deep friendships that flow out of a common love for Christ.

These are the relatives and friends who show me how Jesus loves me even when I don’t feel lovable—and they point me back to who God is and the truth that living with Him at the center is worth everything.

The fact is that friends are indispensable in this life. There is something special about having a friend that you can confide in, tell your troubles too, and share your life with. Proverbs 27:10a says, “Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity.” The value of Godly friends and relatives friends is one of the most important things in a person’s life: Their worth are not diminished by time, not devalued by inflation, not worn out by use. They improve with time.

Discussion Questions:

Is any part of your walk with God lukewarm/cold/frozen today?
People don’t connect with God, because they simply don’t know how. Agree to disagree?
What are some obstacles to connecting to God?
How would you rate the value of Godly relationships in your life? Is there an example of the value of Godly relationships in your life?
Pray and ask God to find or to benefit from relationships with other followers of Jesus.