Written by Aileen Bonilla, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador 
The word covenant in the Hebrew language is "berith" and it means alliance, specifically God's alliance with man. It also denotes God's steadfastness in fulfilling His promise (“Berith,” online resource).
Jehovah in His sovereignty sought Abram to make a covenant that would be a blessing to all humanity. It is incredible how God, despite knowing how unfaithful we are, continues with His plan to fulfill a specific purpose.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” (Gen. 17:1-2 NIV)
God asked Abram for two things: faithfulness, that is, not following other gods, and holiness. We may think that it would have been easier to be a woman of faith living in the time of Abram, possibly because it seems that there was not as much evil in the world, and there was no influence of social media. But the reality is that the amount of evil was the same then as we face today. There were many gods, and it was easy to be persuaded to follow them. But despite those temptations, God still demanded fidelity and holiness from Abram.
If we look at the order of the words in the Genesis passage, we understand that without faithfulness to God, it is impossible to have a life of holiness. These words are not independent of one another, but quite the contrary, they go together. We will not be able to lead a blameless life if we are constantly unfaithful to God. We may not be worshiping clay or ceramic gods, but in our hearts, there may be many idols that significantly interfere with our spiritual growth. These idols can be disguised as people, work, professions, social status, etc. I'm not saying that these things are bad—not at all. For example, who does not need to work to live? As long as we don't place our trust in our profession, it will not hurt us.
To serve God correctly, in the way that He desires, it is necessary to abandon our gods or idols. Then our hearts will be open to a pursuit of faithfulness and holiness.
Recently, in the ministry where I serve with my husband, I went through a difficult time. I put my trust in a brother who was very special to us. I thought he would defend our work, but ultimately, he didn't. Perhaps because he came from a family lineage that set a great example and he always seemed to show a pacifying nature, I realized that I was holding him up as an idol in my heart. I learned with much pain that I needed to leave this struggle to God, who judges everything fairly. I learned not to depend on human beings, but to directly ask guidance from the Provider of all things, and to understand that God in His sovereignty has everything under control. I also learned that when I want to control everything, I am not giving God space in my life.
God's wonderful promise to Abram was a firm, everlasting covenant that would bring an incredible blessing— innumerable offspring like the stars in the sky. Because of his and Sarai’s old age, this seemed impossible. Once again Abram did not understand that it was not about what he could do with his own strength, but about the power of El Shaddai. Abram had not done anything extraordinary to deserve this covenant—El Shaddai sought him out and completely changed his life.
After God's first visit in Genesis 15, when Jehovah promises them a son, Abram and Sarai continued to make mistakes. One of the most obvious was when Abram had sexual relations with his Egyptian slave, even though God promised him that he and Sarai would have an offspring. We can see that we lose focus quickly despite knowing God's promises. Sarai wanted to control the means by which Abram would have a son, forgetting that Jehovah is the One Who can make all things possible. She was eventually reminded that Jehovah is not a human being, He does not lie, and His covenant is eternal (Num. 23:19). Let us not forget that our hope should not be put in human beings, but in the Giver of Life.
At that time, El Shaddai promised Abram offspring too numerous to count. Today we see this promise reflected in the church through the wonderful redemptive work of His Son Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us put our trust in God and not in people, especially not ourselves.