Hebrews 11:14

For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.

This verse shows that the status of being a pilgrim, or sojourner, is not something that was imputed to Abraham by his admirers of a later age, but that he said these things concerning himself, as in Genesis 23:4. It will also be remembered that when aged Jacob appeared before Pharaoh, he said, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage (sojournings) are a hundred and thirty years" (Genesis 47:9); and King David of Israel wrote, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Psalms 39:12). Needless to say, this is the only proper attitude of Christians, for Paul declared that "While we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord" (1 Corinthians 5:6 KJV); and Peter admonished Christians to "pass the time of your sojourning in fear" (1 Peter 1:17).