18^th century British evangelist John Wesley is the inspiration for this post. I first learned about how Wesley capped his own standard of living from David Platt’s book “Radical”:  “He identified a modest level of expenses that he was going to live on every year. The first year his income surpassed that level by a small amount, and he gave that excess away.

The next year his income increased, but he kept his standard of living the same, so he had more to give away. This continued year after year. At one point Wesley was making the equivalent of about $ 160,000 a year in today’s terms, but he was living as if he were making $ 20,000 a year. As a result he had the equivalent of more than $ 140,000 to give away that year.”

I am convinced that as long as we believers allow our standards of living to perpetually creep upward, we will never experience the spiritual vitality God has in store for us. I have therefore listed some reasons we should cap our standards of living.

8 Reasons For Capping Standards of Living

1.  We will be better givers.