Godly speculation

My washing machine spin cycle is not reliable, so I have come into the habit of praising God every time it works well. I wonder if God is using this situation to make me more conscious of thanking Him for the quotidian things of life.

A Christian woman I was impressed with years ago happened to come to my door recently, looking not for me but for my non-Christian next door neighbor, with whom her mother has a business transaction. I am wondering if God has more in mind for Barb and me than just that business transaction.

There seems to be a divide between Christians who tend to see God in the many alignments of circumstances, and Christians who tend to resist that way of thinking as speculative. Here is the question: Is there a godly kind of speculation? Is there an allowable—and even biblically encouraged—activity of trying to see what God is up to in the seemingly random occurrences of our lives?

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter from prison to his friend Philemon about the latter’s runaway slave, who ended up meeting Paul and becoming a Christian. Paul speculates:

“For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bond servant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you …” (Philemon 15-16, ESV).

This is a peek into the mind of a sanctified and continually God-oriented man. He does a lot of thinking about the things that go on around him, and he does not shy away from taking guesses about what God is up to. Mordecai was of the same bent of mind. When his cousin Queen Esther is at first reluctant to put her life on the line by approaching the king unbidden, Mordecai replied:

“… who knows you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, ESV).

Mordecai couldn’t prove it. Paul couldn’t prove it. But no one censured them for speculating about where God is taking things. Indeed, it is a sign of a mind that is always being watchful, as we all are exhorted to be:

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2, ESV).

You can’t very well be watchful for answers to prayer without repeatedly thinking to yourself as you observe developments, “Hey, maybe this incident is the beginning of an answer!”, or, “Hey, maybe this turn of events is the breakthrough I’m looking for.” The prophet Elijah had his servant keep running off to look for a sign in the sky as he prayed fervently for action on the part of God. We should always be on the lookout too.

It doesn’t mean, of course, that I won’t have to get my washing machine fixed soon.