YouVersion’s most popular verse may be thousands of years old, but it speaks perfectly to the times we’re living in, observes Bible Society’s Rev Mark Woods
YouVersion’s annual announcement of the most popular Bible verse is always interesting.
The Bible reading platform has been downloaded 725 million times (yes, you read that right), so data like this can provide a genuine snapshot of what people around the world really want to hear from the Bible at a particular time.
The verse of the year
This year the verse users engaged with the most was Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.
It’s a plain, straightforward piece of advice which might seem as trite as a Hallmark card if it weren’t for the story behind it. Paul wrote these words while he was in prison, facing hardship and possible execution. So the sweet simplicity of these words turns out to have been distilled from his experiences of brutal mistreatment, imprisonment, fear and danger. Furthermore, it’s not that he is looking back on all this from a safe distance: he’s still in the grip of the storm, the heart of the furnace, and he has no idea whether he’ll survive it or not.
These simple but profoundly beautiful and powerful words are perfectly designed for our anxious times
When we think about this verse in context, then, it’s not surprising that it’s reached the top of the YouVersion list this year. These are extraordinary times. The US is polarised as it’s rarely been during its history, with one half of the country feeling a deep fear and loathing for the other. The Middle East is in the middle of a hot war between unequal combatants, with the consequences felt most severely by the tens of thousands of civilian victims. Europe is in flames again. Western hegemony in the Pacific and influence in Africa is being successfully challenged by China.
If the world is looking like a political mess, the earth is looking like an environmental one, with climate change increasingly felt and solutions decreasingly available. Amongst all that, many countries have seen protest votes aimed at the perceived ineffectiveness of their governing classes, unable to control immigration or fix their health services or prison systems.
We’re fed on a mental diet of catastrophe, and we aren’t meant to live like that.
Many of us have genuine concerns about real issues like these – and so we should. But we ought to acknowledge that these concerns are fed by social media and the 24-hour news cycle that means we’re constantly kept in a state of tension and fear. We’re fed on a mental diet of catastrophe, and we aren’t meant to live like that. Jonathan Haidt’s recent book The Anxious Generation majors on how the internet is rewiring the brains of children and young people, and not in a good way. But it’s true of all of us – the world was actually more dangerous in years gone by, with more wars, diseases and hunger, but our always-on social media apps mean that we’re constantly exposed to these things in a way that becomes unbearable.
To dive deep or to stay ashore?
How can we navigate a world like this? One response is to become a permanent protestor, always marching and petitioning and campaigning to make the world a better place. Another is to withdraw, to ‘cultivate our gardens’ and ignore the great issues of the day because there’s nothing we can do about them anyway.
But Paul’s words seem to suggest an alternative way of living from either of these. When he says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”, he’s not recommending either ceaseless activism or detachment and withdrawal.
“Do not be anxious” is a call to trust. Refusing to be terrified or depressed by what’s on our screens doesn’t have to be a sign that we don’t care; it can be a sign that we know there are things we can’t do and situations that are just too big for us, and because we believe the world is in God’s hands, that’s OK.
The firm foundation of God
But this isn’t withdrawal from the world, either, because Paul also tells us “in every situation” to “present your requests to God” . This means that we’re to immerse ourselves prayerfully in these situations, to care deeply and love intensively – but also that we’re to hand them over to God rather than bearing the whole weight of them ourselves.
It turns out, then, that these simple but profoundly beautiful and powerful words are perfectly designed for our anxious times. They spring from an experience of deep uncertainty and fear, but they express a deeper trust in God. All over the world these words, written nearly 2,000 years ago, say something that millions of people still need to hear.
It’s an extraordinary confirmation that the Bible still speaks into hearts and minds today.
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