City of Hope Church, Cincinnati, OH (2026)

05/19/2026

🙏 Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏🕊

This Week: We seek God for transformation that begins within, through the renewal of our minds.

Most of us didn’t decide how to handle anger. We just absorbed it as children as we watched those around us. We didn’t write the rule that said “keep everyone happy” or “be strong, don’t cry” We just… learned it. Early. Quietly. Without even realizing it had become part of us.

Paul encourages us, not to conform to the patterns around us—even if those patterns originated in our families. His word for “conform” carries the image of being pressed into a mold from the outside. That’s exactly how a script works. And Paul’s answer is transformation: a renewing of the mind that only God can do, going all the way down to where the scripts live. Our scripts can be rewritten. God does that work from the inside out.

📖 Scripture Meditation: Romans 12:2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

🙏 Prayer Points:
• Lord Jesus, I bring every pattern and script to You. Rewrite me from the inside out.
• Holy Spirit, renew my mind. Get underneath the patterns and transform me where I’ve been pressed into a mold You never chose for me.
• Father, show me what “normal” looks like in Your Kingdom, so I can begin to tell the difference between what You wrote for me and what the world pressed into me.

🪞Personal Reflection:
What is one unspoken rule you grew up with, about emotions, conflict, worth, or belonging, that you’re still living by? Where did it come from, and is it true?

04/27/2026

Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏

In Revelation 5, John weeps because no one is worthy to open the scroll. But, one of the elders says, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed.” John looks up, expecting to see a lion in all its ferocious glory. But instead, he sees a Lamb—looking as if it had been slain—standing at the center of the throne. And the heavens erupt in worship: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

This is the stunning paradox at the heart of our faith: the Lion is the Lamb. The One who conquered did so, not through violence, but through sacrifice. And, those of us who follow Him have been purchased by His spilled blood, and made into a kingdom of priests. The slain Lamb on the throne is worthy of all our worship.

📖 Scripture Meditation: Revelation 5:9-10, 12
“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth… Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’”

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Jesus, thank You for purchasing me with Your blood and making me part of Your Kingdom and priesthood.
- Father, teach me what it means to live as a priest in Your Kingdom.
- Holy Spirit, remind me that strength comes through sacrifice, that Your power is perfected in my weakness, and in Your Kingdom, that the way up is often down.

🪞Personal Reflection:
How does it change my understanding of true power to know that the Lion of Judah triumphed by becoming the slain Lamb of God?

04/20/2026

Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏

This week, we pray for freedom from what Jesus already defeated at the cross, and the courage to step into the victory He died to give us.

The cross looked like defeat. To those standing at Golgotha, watching Jesus breathe His last, it seemed like the end of everything. The religious leaders mocked. The Roman soldiers gambled for His clothes. Even His own disciples scattered in despair. But while the world could only see suffering and shame, something else was happening in the spiritual realm—an invisible victory was being won.

Paul declares it boldly: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” What the world dismissed as weakness was actually the greatest display of divine power in human history. At the cross, Jesus defeated sin, death, fear, shame, and every spiritual force that held humanity captive.

Jesus was on a rescue mission! The question for each of us is this: What has He already defeated that we’re still living in bo***ge to? And are we ready to step into the freedom He died to give us?

📖 Scripture Meditation: 1 Corinthians 1:18
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Lord Jesus, open my eyes to recognize the cross as the place where You won my ultimate victory.
- Holy Spirit, reveal to me what Jesus already defeated on my behalf, and give me courage to step into that freedom and out of old patterns of bo***ge.
- Father, grant me faith to trust in the power of the cross even when the world around me calls it foolishness.

🪞 Personal Reflection: Allow the light of God to search your heart, mind, and life. Where might He be inviting you into a greater level of freedom? How might you personally embrace the fullness of the freedom Jesus won for you on the cross?

04/13/2026

Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏

🕊 This Week: We pray for eyes to see Jesus as the King who reigns from a cross, whose power was displayed through sacrifice.

When Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you a king?” Jesus didn’t deny it – He redefined it. What kind of King chooses a cross? Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It doesn’t operate by the world’s rules. His Kingdom doesn’t advance through military might or political manipulation. His throne was the cross. His crown was made of thorns. And, His power was displayed through sacrifice. This is the King we follow.

📖 Scripture Meditation: John 18:36-37
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Father, expose the places where I’ve been shaped more by the world’s definition of power than by Your upside-down Kingdom.
- Jesus, help me recognize You as King even when Your reign doesn’t look like what I expected or wanted.
- Holy Spirit, teach me to listen for truth rather than just look for triumph, trusting that Your Kingdom advances in ways I cannot always see.

🪞 Personal Reflection:
Isaiah prophesied about Jesus, calling Him the “Suffering Servant.” Meditate on that for a moment. How might you personally respond to Jesus as the “Suffering Servant” today?

03/30/2026

Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏
This month, we journey toward the Cross with Jesus as we prepare our hearts for Resurrection season.

Buried: The Silence of the Tomb

Jesus died. The breath left His body, the soldiers confirmed it with a spear, and the stone was rolled across the entrance of the tomb. For those who had followed Jesus, that Saturday was a day of devastating silence. The One they had staked everything on was gone, sealed behind rock and Roman guard. We tend to rush past this moment in our eagerness to get to Sunday. But there is something the Spirit wants to form in us here, in the stillness of the sealed tomb. Because most of us know what it is to live in a Saturday season — a season when the promises of God feel distant, when prayers seem to go unanswered, when the thing we believed in appears to have died. What Saturday teaches us is this: God is working in the silence. That tomb was the most active place on earth that day, though no one could see it. The Father who gave His Son did not abandon Him in death, and He does not abandon us in our waiting.

📖 Scripture Meditation: Luke 23:50-56
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes.

But they rested on the Sabbath, in obedience to the commandment.

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Lord Jesus, You entered death fully. Let the reality of Your death — its completeness, its cost — settle deeply in me before I rush toward the resurrection.
- Father, You were at work in the silence of Saturday when no one could see it. Anchor my trust in Your faithfulness in the seasons of my life when Your activity is hidden from my sight.
- Holy Spirit, meet me in the waiting places — the unanswered prayers, the unresolved situations, the dreams that feel sealed behind stone. Be my comfort and my certainty that You have not finished what You have started.

🔎Personal Reflection:
Where are you waiting on God in a season of heavy silence? What would it look like to trust that He is moving even when you cannot see?

03/24/2026

Today is Our HOPE Day of Prayer 🙏

This month, we journey toward the Cross with Jesus as we prepare our hearts for Resurrection season.

Crucifixion was designed to strip a man of everything — dignity, strength, voice, and finally breath. And yet, hanging between earth and sky with nails through His hands, Jesus spoke. He prayed for the soldiers dividing His garments. He turned toward a dying criminal and offered him paradise. In the most extreme moment of human suffering ever endured, the Son of God was still giving. Still interceding. Still welcoming the undeserving into His kingdom. This is divine mercy poured out at the greatest cost. The thief beside Him had nothing to offer and no time left to make things right. Yet, Jesus received him completely. The cross reveals a God whose mercy is wider than our worst moments, deeper than our longest failures, and more persistent than anything we could do to exhaust it.

📖 Scripture Meditation: Luke 23:32-43
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals — one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Lord Jesus, You extended mercy from the cross to those who put You there. Let the fullness of that mercy — its cost, its reach, its persistence — become the ground I stand on this week.
- Father, the thief beside Your Son brought nothing but his need, and You received him fully. Deepen my understanding of a grace that requires nothing from me but the honesty to ask.
- Holy Spirit, wherever I have placed limits on who deserves mercy — in my own heart, in my relationships, in my community — expand my capacity to give what I myself have so freely received.

🔎Personal Reflection:
What strikes you most about Jesus in this moment — that He prays for His persecutors, or that He welcomes the thief? Sit with whichever one stretches you the most.

03/16/2026

It's our HOPE Prayer Day. We ask God to deepen our awe of the King who willingly took our place and our punishment.

Week 2: Condemned — The King Who Reigns from a Cross
Pilate asked the crowd a question he didn’t fully understand: “Shall I crucify your King?” And the answer that came back sealed the most astonishing exchange in human history. Barabbas — guilty, condemned, awaiting ex*****on — walked out of his cell a free man while Jesus, whom Pilate himself declared innocent, was handed over to die in his place. The soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple robe and pressed thorns into His scalp, mocking a kingship they couldn’t perceive was real. But the robe was true. The crown was true. The title Pilate nailed above His head was true. Jesus reigned from that cross — absorbing the punishment that belonged to the guilty, bearing the full sentence of God’s justice so that the condemned could go free. This is the mercy at the center of the gospel: the King took the criminal’s place, and He did it with His eyes wide open, for love of us.

📖 Scripture Meditation: John 19:1-11, 16-18
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
“Here is the man!” said Pilate.
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

🙏 Prayer Points:
- Lord Jesus, You are King — crowned in thorns, robed in mockery, enthroned on a cross. Let the reality of Your kingship sink deeper into me this week than it ever has before. You reign, and Your reign is built on love.
- Father, I stand where Barabbas stood — guilty, condemned, and set free because Your Son took my place. Let the weight of that exchange produce in me a gratitude that shapes how I live every day.
- Holy Spirit, wherever I have treated the grace of substitution as familiar or ordinary, awaken me again to the staggering cost of my freedom.

🔎 Personal Reflection:
Imagine for a moment you are Barabbas, guilty, but walking free because of a substitution you did nothing to earn. How would you feel? How are you like Barabbas? How should that shape the way you move through your daily life?

03/09/2026

This month, we journey toward the Cross with Jesus as we prepare our hearts for Resurrection season.

Before the nails, before the cross, there was a garden. And in that garden, Jesus — fully God and fully human — knelt in the darkness and wrestled with what was coming. And His anguish was real. As sweat poured like drops of blood, His request genuine: if there is any other way, let this cup pass. The cup He faced held the full weight of human sin, the undiluted wrath of God that every one of us deserved to drink. Jesus saw it clearly, felt it fully, and chose it willingly. He surrendered because He loved us, and even more, because He trusted the Father. In Gethsemane, the Son of God demonstrated what perfect obedience looks like — moving through genuine anguish with His face still set toward the Father’s will. This is where our journey to the cross begins: not with eyes fixed on us, but eyes fixed on Him.

📖 Scripture Meditation: Luke 22:39-44
He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

🙏 Prayer Points:

Lord Jesus, as I journey to meet You at the cross, open my eyes to see the full weight of your choice to surrender and suffer on my behalf.
Holy Spirit, wherever I have been praying “Your will be done” with my mouth but resisting it in my heart, surface those places with gentleness and bring them into the light.
Father, You did not spare Your own Son. Deepen my trust in Your goodness, even when — especially when — the path You have set before me is difficult.

🔎 Personal Reflection:
Where in your own life are you wrestling with surrender? What “cup” are you asking God to remove? How might you approach God with honesty and humble surrender?

01/27/2026

🙌We’re jumping into 2026 with H.O.P.E!🙌
Hearing, Obeying, Pursuing, and Embodying God.

This Week’s Prayer Focus 🙏
We ask God to teach us to embody His Love—To bring it to life out in the real world.

To embody something means to give it flesh and bones—to make the invisible visible. People in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and families cannot see Christ with their physical eyes. But they can see us. When we embody Christ’s love, we become walking, talking, breathing demonstrations of who God is. We give His love hands that serve, ears that listen, and arms that embrace. Paul tells us to “walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” Notice the action words: walk, give. This isn’t love as a feeling or a sentiment—it’s love with feet on it. The world is full of people who are lonely, overlooked, exhausted, and hungry for someone to notice them. We get to be the answer to their unspoken prayers. This week, we consider practical ways to make God’s love tangible for the people right in front of us.

🙏Prayer Points:
- Father, let me live as Your dearly loved child, secure enough in Your love that I can freely give it away.
- Lord Jesus, help me walk in sacrificial love that mirrors Your self-giving on the cross.
- Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see specific people in my life who need tangible expressions of Christ’s love this week.

🪞Personal Reflection:
- Who is God placing in your path to receive embodied expressions of His love? What might that look like practically?

💙🤚Some Practical Ways to Embody Christ’s Love This Week:
- See people. Make eye contact with the cashier, the server, the person everyone else ignores. Learn their name.
- Slow down to listen. Give someone your full attention without rushing to fix, advise, or redirect the conversation.
- Share a meal. Invite a neighbor, coworker, or someone new to your table. Hospitality makes love tangible.
- Show up. Visit someone who’s sick, text someone who’s struggling, attend the event you were tempted to skip.
- Serve without announcement. Look for a need and meet it quietly—no social media post required.

01/13/2026

🙌We are jumping into 2026 with H.O.P.E🙌
Hearing, Obeying, Pursuing, and Embodying God's Love.

This Week's Prayer Focus 🙏 We ask God for the grace to obey that flows from our love for Him rather than a fear of punishment.

📖 Scripture Meditation: John 14:21
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Obedience is a bad word in today’s culture. Even Christians dismiss preaching on obedience as legalistic and old fashioned. Yet Jesus Himself declared that love and obedience are inseparable —“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” For Jesus, true obedience doesn’t flow from fear of punishment. It flows from the depths of our relationship with Him. Our obedience is our response to being known and loved by God. This biblical vision of obedience isn’t about achieving perfection. It’s about maintaining connection. When we take what God has spoken through Scripture and whispered through His Spirit and humbly live it out, we deepen our union with Him.

Prayer Points:
* Lord Jesus, reveal where I have been content to hear Your word without putting it into practice.
* Holy Spirit, give me courage to obey in the small, personal ways You are nudging me—even when no one else will see or applaud.
* Father, let my obedience flow from love rather than obligation, knowing that as I keep Your commands, You reveal more of Yourself to me.

Personal Reflection:
*Is there something God has been nudging you to do that you’ve hesitated to act on? What’s holding you back?
*How can your spiritual community encourage one another toward faithful obedience without slipping into legalism or judgment?

City of Hope Church

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