Elisha said to her, "This time next year you're going to be nursing an infant son."
"O my master, O Holy Man," she said, "don't play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies!"
2 Kings 4:16 (MSG)
Promises feel profane to those whose life experience sit in opposition to that which is promised.
Mary was young and naive when Gabriel told her she would conceive and bear a son. We applaud her faith in joyfully embracing the message. Seriously, she had no concept of the pain of barrenness. That was not her journey. She would experience a different kind of barrenness and pain 30 years later.
The promise of a child is another thing altogether to a woman who has believed and hoped for years, and has nothing to show for it. Promise that woman she will conceive and you'll be met with Sarah's sarcastic and cynical laughter. You will feel defenses rise. You might even get the biting reply of the Shunnamite woman telling Elisha and God, in certain words, to keep their promises to themselves.
Promises are an encouragement to some. They are a burden for others.