When God prophetically speaks a promise to us, He's telling us what He plans to accomplish through us. But He is not predicting the future as if to say this is what will happen to you no matter what choices you make. In order for God to accomplish great things in our lives, He must first grow our faith to a level where we can receive His promise. God promised great blessings to Abraham and Sarah, but as we see in this passage they had a lot of growing to do before the promises could become reality. The troubles faced by Abraham and Sarah played important roles in growing their faith. To begin with, their faith was far too small to allow God to fulfill His promises to them, but God didn't let that stop Him. As a father He used their troubles, and even their mistakes, to strengthen the depth of their spiritual lives. As we know Abraham and Sarah successfully realized God's promises. But it wasn't easy and at times they made foolish decisions.

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