Most popular Bible verse and top search terms tell a story of faith in 2020

Photo courtesy of Youversion.com

Most popular Bible verse and top search terms tell a story of faith in 2020

In a year marked by uncertainty and turmoil, more people than ever turned to the Bible for hope.

In fact, the YouVersion community completed nearly 600 million searches within the app in 2020, an 80% increase over the previous year.

With record-breaking levels of Bible engagement in the app this year, the 2020 YouVersion Verse of the Year is Isaiah 41:10: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with My victorious right hand.”

The verse topped the global list of verses shared, bookmarked and highlighted most in 2020, and was the top verse in several countries, including India, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United States.

‘Challenging year’

“This has been a challenging year with many people facing devastating loss, loneliness, and fear,” said YouVersion Founder Bobby Gruenewald. “While 2020 is a year so many say they’d like to forget, we see it as a year to remember how God used the Bible App to help so many people who are searching for answers. Through every hardship, people continue to seek God and turn to the Bible for strength, peace and hope.”

Early in the year, people most frequently searched the Bible App for phrases like “new year,” “bible in a year,” “faith” and “fasting.”

In mid-March as COVID-19 accelerated, the number one search term was “fear.” Soon after, the fastest growing search terms week-over-week were words like “peace,” “hope” and “faith” as the pandemic continued.

The trending Bible App searches for this year also included “justice,” which rose to the top in late May, and again in late August and late September.

The search terms “healing,” “peace” and “love” were consistently among the top results throughout the year.

“These top search terms really show what’s been weighing on the hearts and minds of people around the world at key points throughout the year,” said Gruenewald. “They reveal how people are seeking God as they wrestle with the difficult circumstances they’ve faced in 2020, and that’s something we can celebrate.”

As some churches temporarily paused physical services to stop the spread of COVID-19, many people used digital tools to connect with God, including the Bible App.

With 43.6 billion Bible chapters read, 7.5 billion audio chapters played and 1.4 billion Bible Plan days completed, the YouVersion Bible App saw its highest levels of global Bible engagement in app history.

YouVersion Prayer also was launched in 2020, allowing users to create and share prayer. Nearly 25 million prayers were created and 1.6 million shared in the app.

The Bible App also saw a significant increase in engagement in several countries on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution for their faith.

Engagement jumps

Ethiopia, which is No. 39 on the World Watch List, saw the biggest jump, with a 61% increase in engagement with the Bible App. Other countries on both lists are Kenya (No. 44), which saw a 37% increase in engagement with the app; Nigeria (No. 12), which saw a 32% increase in engagement; and India (No. 10) and Egypt (No. 16), which saw a 23% and 20% increase in engagement with the app, respectively.

A YouVersion spokesperson told TAB Media in an email, “While we can’t be certain which factors have led to those specific countries showing such strong year over year growth, we are excited to see our ministry efforts being able to have an impact there.”

YouVersion also experienced record-breaking growth for the Bible App for Kids, which was developed in partnership with OneHope.

In 2020 alone, the app was installed on more than 22 million unique devices, now totaling installation on more than 60 million devices worldwide.

Games for kids

Kids from around the world have completed more than 170 million Bible App for Kids Stories this year, which is a 90% increase over the previous record set in 2019.

With eight languages added this year, children can now experience the animated Bible stories and interactive games in 60 languages.

For more information about YouVersion, visit youversion.com. (YouVersion/TAB).

For more information about top online Scripture searches, click here.