Disclosed are a method and a mobile terminal for easily and rapidly searching for messages received from or sent to the same phone number of a currently displayed message. The method includes a first step of detecting whether a user inputs a key to select a previous or next message received from or sent to the same phone number of a currently displayed message; a second step of searching for the previous or next message received from or sent to the same phone number upon detecting the user's key input; and a third step of displaying the detected message on a display unit of the mobile terminal.