If you woke up every morning and told yourself, “My marriage is going to fail,” what do you think will happen? Don’t be surprised if your marriage fails. If you live everyday as if you don’t expect God to show up or do anything substantive, don’t be surprised if you fail to see God move in your world at all. Part of living the abundant life Jesus died to give us is to live a life of expectation, one where we expect God to show up in our everyday world. What does that practically look like? Here are four ways to live each day with expectation:

1. Talk with God before you leave the house. If you expect God to do something in your world, doesn’t it make sense to talk to him? When you open communication with God at the start of each day, you’re acknowledging his presence and his desire to move in your world. If you want to live with expectation, start talking to God more.

2. See every interaction as an opportunity. Many of the ways God wants to move in and through you is in the context of relationships. Every time you interact with someone, whether it’s a coworker, a check out cashier or a neighbor walking his dog, ask yourself, “is this an opportunity for God to show up and do something in their life?”

3. Look past the problems and see the people. Too many times we live through each day with a checklist of things we need to accomplish. If we check off all the things on our list, our day seems successful. Living with expectation means that we look past the checklist, past the problems needing to be solved, and see the people we’re surrounded by. When you see God move, it’s going to be in the lives of those around you.

4. Live like God wants to do something today. If you expect God to do something incredible today, live like it. Walk out of your door singing, not sighing. Walk into work with a spring in your step because you’ve got a front row seat to what God wants to do today. When you expect God to move in your world, don’t be surprised when he actually does.