Acts 1:24. Then they prayed, “You, Lord, know everyone’s hearts; show which of these two you have chosen.”

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The disciples knew that their Lord knew hearts.

The Psalmist stated, "If we had forgotten the name of our God and spread out our hands to a foreign god, wouldn’t God have found this out, since he knows the secrets of the heart?” (Psalm 44:20-21, CSB).

The disciples were going to witness a glaring example of how the Lord knew hearts when a man named Ananias, along with his wife Sapphira, attempted to lie to the Holy Spirit in Acts 5. (Spoiler alert: they did not live to tell about it). But those first Jesus’ followers counted on the Lord’s knowledge of the heart for a very different reason.

Peter’s talk to the 120 in the Upper Room in Acts 1:16-22 was a quick review of Judas’ demise, and an appeal to the Psalms 69:25 & Psalms 108:8 as justification to replace him. The disciples realized that the design that Jesus had established (twelve disciples) should be preserved. We learn that there were a number of ‘wannabe’ disciples that followed Jesus, and thus they decided to narrow it down to two men who had followed from the time of Jesus’ baptism by John up to the time of the resurrection.

There is no indication that Jesus had told them this was necessary, but it had been the pattern they were used to and thus, they wanted to preserve it. Truth be told, we never hear of the twelfth disciple, Matthias, ever again in the book of Acts or the rest of the Bible for that matter. Whether it was necessary or not was not an issue, but rather this is a situation that they came to through prayer. They needed the Lord’s wisdom to make a decision and they PRAYED for that direction.

PRAYER STARTER…

Precious Lord Jesus, we find ourselves often in the dark as we walk through this building project of your house of prayer. Quiet our anxious hearts to hear your voice to guide us to do what is right and true according to your Word.

(Continue this prayer as the Holy Spirit directs you personally. Remember, he hears our hearts, so simply pour out your heart to Him.)