The Bible commands us to be baptized, but what does the water actually do? Does it save us, like 1 Peter 3:21 appears to say?

Even when our prayers for protection feel pointless, they are not. God is our good and sovereign Father, and it is never pointless to ask him for what we need.

Jesus could have healed the man born blind with a simple command; instead, he used spit and mud. Why?