Money can do good, create opportunities, and provide for the people we love. But holding it too tightly will cost us dearly. Being smart with money requires us to first come to terms with the dangers that it can bring. Before we can manage money well, we need to understand what it can do to us.

1. Share a time when making or keeping money caused you to neglect something or someone that mattered more?

2. In what ways have you seen the pursuit of money change someone's character over time? How do you see any of these tendencies in yourself?

3. Proverbs 30 warns that having too much can cause us to disown God. Where in your life do you notice that money has made you feel less dependent on God? What is one thing you can do to dethrone money and reorder your life around God instead?

We live in one of the most prosperous nations, with more resources, more options, and more comfort than any generation before us. Yet the feeling of having enough remains out of reach. Being smart with money requires us to understand this paradox: why does having more leave us wanting more still? No financial strategy will ever be enough until we reckon with why enough feels so hard to reach.

1. When was the last time you complained about not having enough money to get something? Would someone who is needy consider that a necessity or a luxury?

2. Is there a specific amount of wealth that you believe would finally make you feel secure? And if you actually reached that amount, do you think you would truly stop worrying about money?

3. Can you honestly say that you see yourself as managing God’s money? What would change about how you handle it if you knew that one day you would have to give God an account of how you managed it?