God may be ready to surprise you. Are you ready? Are you prepared to receive this? Have you "cleared the way"?

A few years ago we carried the powerful account -- and prayer -- centered on "Our Lady of Surprises." How about the Lord Himself? How much greater is what He may have in store for you!

He is the "God of Surprises."

Have you taken advantage of that?

Surprise is naught but simple fare for God. There are thousands -- countless -- ways He can surprise you. Don't you need a pleasant surprise or two in your life? We forget that He has total control of the universe. He can even use enemies to bless you!

In fact, spiritual attacks often come just before God is ready to gift us -- to present a surprise.

Miracles await you -- always. Never mind if you are "down and out." Never mind if you feel like you are last in line. God can make the "last" to be first by simply shifting the direction of the wind!

When He does, the landscape changes. Hasn't that happened at times in your life? Suddenly, events form to rearrange your very existence.

Don't be afraid to let that happen. Often in life we don't receive what we could receive or experience the joy we could enjoy because we're not ready for it. We have blocks. There are obstacles. There is emotional or spiritual "woundedness."

It is time for you to clear them. It is time for you to ask for healing, such that you can receive more of what He (as Father) wants to give.

Remember that God takes blocks in your life and turns them into steppingstones. He causes every course for a purpose. He sets everything up in a way we can't understand.

Feel stuck? He will "unstick" you. Feel stalled? He will "unstall" you. Feel hopeless? Have now hope. For God can easily -- mightily -- get you where you need to go in surprising ways (ways you would not have thought possible).

Odds are you are not taking full advantage of this.

Through our choices, we choose to partake of His blessing -- His surprises -- or wallow in inertia. What God wants is for you to cast out darkness, pray for blessings, and move ahead. When that's done, anything is possible! But first you must be right with yourself. You must feel love. You must feel balance.

When we go through life with unhealed emotional injuries, they collect debris (like a growing scab). That happens when we have not prayed to heal inner wounds. Most do not think to do this. But it is potent!

Are you still harboring feelings that block you? Or have you let others block you (through their thoughts or jealousies or actions)?

It's time to look beyond the barricades. Imagine some of the ways that God might surprise you. Imagine some dramatic turns in your life -- for the better. Imagine immediate resolution of certain conflicts.

All of that is in the reach of faith.

Here's the catch: the Lord wants to see you advance in love. He wants you to think kindly of everyone. This is the "preparation" for surprise. He wants you to view everyone as part of the same Plan.

Do you love enough? Have you opened the way by setting a pattern of love?

Often, we must be healed before we can love. This is not to speak of a physical malady. It refers to emotional healing.

To allow love to flow from God (through you), you must remove blocks; you must remove wounds, scabs, and scars.

It is in wounds that the enemy plants himself!

Thus, start your prayer walk with getting rid of anything that is blocking you. We all go through this. Such blocks can come from sin, brushes with evil, or the ill wishes (read: jealousies) of others.

In prayer, go deep, break such "curses" (in the Name of Jesus) -- cast them to the foot of the Cross (for disposal according to the Will of God) -- and seal yourself against their return.

Then, ask Jesus to move His Spirit through every inner part of you and heal what needs to be remedied. How good you will feel!

How open to surprise!

When you are healed inwardly, you can love the person (or persons) who curse you. Even your enemies can be used to bless you!

Just let disputes -- the antagonisms of others -- pass right by you.

Be neutral. Neither accept evil, nor judge. This will open the way for love.

Do that, and wait for the surprises!

We possess love only when we allow it to enter.

"In the end, it is the Lord who helps us but we must be available as instruments," said Benedict XVI just this week.

"I would say simply: No one can give what he does not personally possess."