{{first_name|Friend}},

You see it everywhere.

A business book promising to give you the missing piece. A marketing strategy that everyone online swears is working. A framework, a funnel, a system, a tactic.

And honestly, it is tempting. Someone has already done the work. They tested it. It got results. Why not just follow what works?

I am not here to tell you it is wrong. But I want to give you a pause before you execute.

In my study of Jeremiah 17, I came across an image I have not been able to shake.

The prophet describes two types of people. One trusts in man, in human strength, in tactics and systems and what others say is working. He is described as a shrub in the desert, always in survival mode, always searching. And here is the part that stopped me: there is a specific plant called the Sodom apple that grows around the Dead Sea. From a distance, it looks full and healthy. The fruit looks plump. But when you open it, it is hollow. Filled with webs, dust, and a dry pit.

That is what the world's strategies can look like when we grab them without discernment. Promising on the outside. Empty when you dig in.

The second person trusts in the Lord. This one is described as a tree planted by water. When the heat comes, it has no fear. When drought hits, it keeps producing. Not because it is in perfect conditions, but because it is connected to the right source.

Here is what I wrote in my notes from that study:

When we grow so restless that we start leaning on tactics, strategies, systems, gimmicks, or even knowledge to accomplish what God has commanded, we turn human strength into our refuge and quietly shift our trust from the Lord to ourselves.

That is the warning I want to pass on to you.

There is nothing wrong with learning from others. God often uses people as instruments of His guidance. But before you execute, ask yourself:

Because here is what I keep coming back to: for a Christian entrepreneur, marketing is the ministry.

Not a tool for the ministry. Not something you do alongside the ministry. The marketing itself, how you show up, what you say, the integrity behind every message, the care you put into how you reach people, that is the ministry in action.

Which means the how matters as much as the what.

God is not only interested in what your business produces. He is interested in how you build it. Every decision made in prayer, every strategy tested against His Word, every temptation to cut corners resisted, those are not just good practices. They are acts of trust. And trust is what draws you near.

The tree by the water does not produce fruit by straining harder. It produces fruit by staying rooted. The how is the rootedness.

The most important foundation you can lay right now is not your brand, your product, or your marketing plan. It is deciding whose voice you will trust when you hit the first wall. Because you will hit one. Build the habit of bringing every decision to God before you bring it to Google or ChatGPT.

It may be time to examine not how hard you are working, but what you have been trusting. A tree is not determined by whether it has fruit right now. It is determined by whether it is planted by the water. Are you still connected to the source, or have you quietly drifted toward whatever seems to be working?

This one is for you especially. Success has a way of making us feel like we figured something out. But Jeremiah 17 is not just a warning for the struggling. It is a warning for anyone whose heart has quietly shifted from trusting God to trusting the method that worked last time. Stay planted and be diligent to plan ahead with God. The drought will come.

Whatever season you are in, the invitation is the same: pause, pray, and ponder before you move.

If something in this landed, I would be encouraged to hear that it’s making a difference for you. I read every response.

In Him,

Stephen