What good will that do? Maybe none, but it can't hurt to try.
Have you ever tried to fix something, and someone suggested what you should do? In frustration, you snapped and asked, "What good will that do?" It's true; it may not accomplish anything. But when nothing you've tried has worked, maybe you should listen to someone else's input.
Sometimes, things in our lives take longer than we want to wait. Consider someone trying to jump-start a car with a dead battery. It doesn't matter at that point why it's drained. It’s useless, and something must be done to change that.
There’s one way to fix the problem; hook jumper cables to a vehicle with a good battery. Then wait. The car won’t start immediately. Instead, you must allow time for power from the charged battery to transfer into yours. You might be tempted not to wait. You may try it too soon without success. That's a sure indicator you haven't waited long enough.
After a few minutes, the person helping says, "Try it again." You respond, "What good will that do?" Although you think it's a waste of time, you turn the key. The engine comes to life, and your frustration vanishes in seconds. Why did it start then, but not earlier? Time.
As Christians, we do the same thing. We try to fix our unpleasant situations, often only making things worse. If we could only learn to wait on God. When we get discouraged and lose power, like the battery, we become useless to God. Power failures are temporary. God will send someone with words of encouragement or a kind deed to jump-start us spiritually, turning our power failures into victories. Many situations can only be fixed by His power. We're prone to keep turning the key too soon without success.
Are you sharing God's power to jump-start someone who’s spiritually broken? We never know what's going on in someone's life. When the Lord impresses us to talk to someone or do something for them, we should never ask, “What good will that do?” Just hook up to them and share His power. He already knows what good it will do.
Andy is a published multi-award-winning author with devotions appearing on the Christian Devotions website as well as the CBN website. He is a contributing author in the Starr Ayers/Stephanie Pavlantos book Room at the Table. Currently, he is working on his first novel and is assembling a book of inspirational Scripture-based short stories along with moral, personal, family, and comical stories. Andy is the founder and director of H.O.P.E. Ministries in Candler, NC. While operating primarily as a food ministry, they also provide backpacks, Easter baskets, and Christmas shoebox gifts to crisis pregnancy centers, domestic violence shelters, schools, government agencies, and other ministries. They also provide disaster relief and aid for unwed mothers and their children.