A-G, I know you to be a faithful sister in Christ, and I have no doubt that praying about the choice in November is a plan made in heaven. “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find...”
Jesus himself said, “And WHEN you pray...” He did not say “IF you pray”. IOW, in this and in other locations, Jesus endorsed prayer.
So far as God choosing Paul as an apostle, I have no doubt that He did. God did evidence His choice with power.
However, and this is simply biblical information, there is no place in scripture even a hint that Matthias was a wrong selection or worse, a selection against God’s will. As you report, the apostles prayed about their decision as you have determined to pray about yours.
I have always considered there to be a parallel between 12 tribes and 12 apostles, and that parallel is even maintained in the construction of the heavenly city.
Let me remind you, though, that in counting the tribes, there are 13. By God’s choice, Joseph was blessed as 2 tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim. In the Revelation, Manasseh is counted as a tribe and Joseph is counted as well. Dan is dropped.
With the Apostles, Judas was dropped and replaced with Matthias and Paul.
In sum, this is a decision that is only decipherable in the prerogatives of God Himself. Matthias was never spoken against, not even by Paul, and Paul was affirmed by power.
So, it is not fair to Matthias, apparently a co-witness of the resurrection, to treat him as anything but an Apostle. Church history suggests he was martyred after ministry in Ethiopia and Georgia. In that, we see that he did “go” into all the world. Since apostle means “sent one”, the “going” suggests, at a minimum, a heart inclined toward being “sent”.
Truly, I was being hard on Matthias. But my intent was to be hard on the Apostles for giving God only two choices to replace Judas.
Seems to me they should have given God at least five choices: Barsabas, Matthias, Either, Neither, Both.