True Friendship

What is a friendship? The dictionary defines it as "the state of being a friend" and "a friendly relation or intimacy." Its kind of an odd definition but at the same time makes sense in the same regard. Let me try to explain my rational. The "state" of being a friend is very much how we define it. How we define it is through our experiences. Some could say friendship is built around trust, others may say spending quality time with them, others may say just being a lending ear to someone whether it is to vent, cry, celebrate, and everything in between. In a sense you could say friendship is all of those things listed above. I think the part that gets confusing is when the word "intimacy" comes into play. This is where people might get the wrong idea of intimacy in the context of friendship. In the dictionary intimacy is defined as "a close, familiar and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group". Where does all the confusion come then? I believe it is when a guy and a girl are trying to build a "friendship" after there was some emotional attachment involved. So why can't a girl be friends with a guy? or vice versa? Do we all long for intimacy in some shape or form? Lets look at it a different way, do you think God longs for intimacy with you? Do you long to have intimacy with God? Do you know that He longs to know you, walk beside you, comfort you, and wants not a portion of you but all of you? We did a study that said "My all for God's all". What does that mean to you? Is there an area in your life that you are not surrendering completely to God? God wants to give us the desires of our heart but first we have to draw near to Him. If you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you. Isn't that what intimacy is? God called Abraham in the Old Testament "Friend". So that leads me to my closing question, do you know what true friendship looks like? Scripture references that "There is no greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13. Would you lay down your life for a friend? Jesus did.