“When Sarah was 127 years old, she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her.

Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders,” Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so that I can give my wife a proper burial.” The Hittites replied to Abraham,” Listen, my lord, you are an honored prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one here will refuse to help you in this way.” Then Abraham bowed low before the Hittites and said,” Since you are willing to help me in this way, be so kind as to ask Ephron, son of Zohar, to let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial place for my family. Genesis 23: 1-9

We know Abraham was a faithful man, a godly man and a man of integrity. This is even more evident in these verses. He was a foreigner and yet the Hittites admired him calling him, “an honored prince among us”. He was beyond reproach. I imagine that if we were to meet Abraham today he would be someone most were attracted to not because he knew all the right things to say or that he was wealthy or all the things the world admires, but because he was full of grace and honor and God. There are people like that today. People we meet and know beyond a shadow of a doubt they are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit just seeps out of them. We can’t help but like them and want to be around them because we just feel the presence of God with them. I imagine the Hittites felt this way about Abraham. He was just a good man. No one is perfect, but there are some people you feel sure are close to it because they wear the Holy Spirit all the time and in everything they do.

Being a believer in Jesus doesn’t ensure that everyone we meet will love us. In fact, we can be assured we will be met with adversity. However, whether people like us or not, they should be able to see that something is different in us and that something different is the Holy Spirit in us. The Holy Spirit causes us to live for Him and not the world. When we live for God we produce the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control Galations 6:22-23. Abraham was a man of God and as such lived these things and was admired for them.

Prayer

Gracious God, help us to live the fruits of the spirit. Help us to live a life that is honorable and good not because of who we are, but because the Holy Spirit lives in us. In Jesus Name, Amen.