Hebrews 11:9 says, “By faith he (Abraham) lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land …”. The Bible tells us that Abraham lived in the Promised Land, but he was different than the inhabitants of that country were. He lived as “an alien”, a foreigner, because of his faith in the Lord.

If we are to live lives of faith which please God, we will live the same way in our world: as “aliens and strangers” as I Peter 2:11 says.

Unfortunately, many Christians do not live as aliens in this world at all. Instead, many of us fit all too well here. We model ourselves more after the fashion of Lot, who seemed quite comfortable in Sodom, than Abraham who lived as an alien in Canaan.
The old expression is a good one: as Christians we are to live “in” this world, but we are not to be “of” this world. Romans 12:2 says we are not to be conformed to this world, but transformed. At the heart of that is the attitude that this world is not our home. As long as God gives us life here on earth, we are never to feel “at home”, but are to live like Abraham did: “as in a foreign land.”