I ran across some interesting statistics.
In the online world, people look up and share Bible verses. The presumption is that these verses are close to the heart, and worth passing along.
I primarily use two online portals for finding Bible verses. One is www.Biblegateway.com and the other is www.youversion.com. Both have different translations and quick lookups.
In 2013, there were more than 456 million visits to the Bible Gateway site, with visitors spending more than 76 million hours on the site. When I watch people with their smartphones looking up verses during a church service, they are mostly using youversion.com. Our youth began using this site a few years ago for their Sunday School class!
On Bible Gateway, here are the top three searches for Bible verses: John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11 and Philippians 4:13. One on salvation and two on living lives of hope and victory. On YouVersion, people shared verses, with Psalm 118:24 at No. 1 (This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.). John 3:16 didn’t even make it into the top ten shared verses.
I wonder how our life circumstances affect the verses we read? Joshua 1:9 (strong and courageous) made it into both lists. Are we finding that the world around us squeezes us so much that we need assurance we won’t be flattened? Are we more interested in ourselves than in verses that gaze on who God is? I wonder how often we would look up Genesis 17:1 type of verses?
I am El Shaddai – God Almighty. Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life!