Country music star Walker Hayes found his way to Jesus Christ through a path of heartache and healing. After years of struggle, hurt, disappointment and unbelief, Walker eventually found Jesus Christ and turned his life over to Him. Walker’s testimony is powerful and moving.
The Bible says that everyone is a sinner, having fallen short of the glory of God. All have turned their backs on Him, choosing, in their arrogance, ignorance and disobedience, their way instead of following Christ. Nevertheless, despite our sins and transgressions, Christ is constantly reaching out and calling our names. He’s the good, loving, faithful Shepherd who always looks for the lost sheep.
Musician Walker Hayes was a lost sheep, as we all were at one time or another. But after some enormous hurt, loss and a battle with alcohol, Walker has found Jesus Christ, and his testimony is moving, powerful and likely to bring you to tears.
In a clip posted on YouTube, Walker shares how he came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. As a young man, Walker and his wife moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue country music. Eventually, he scored a record deal and a hit song, but he started developing a drinking problem.
In 2014, Walker and his family were invited to a church service. Walker went even though he considered himself an atheist. Over the next few years, Walker and the pastor of that church service became friends.
Walker eventually lost his record deal in 2015. He and his wife had five children at the time. Things got so bad that the record label even repossessed the family’s van.
Then, in 2016, Walker got another record deal, but his pastor friend refused to give up on him. Walker said that he would believe God was real if God could take away his desire to drink, and that’s exactly what He did.
“When he quit on that Saturday, it wasn’t, it wasn’t with the intent of ‘I’m done drinking,’” Laney Hayes, Walker’s wife, said. “It was just one day he wasn’t drinking, and then the next day he didn’t, and then the next day, and it’s miraculous that he stopped that way.”
But as the clip states, in 2018, the Hayes family lost their baby girl, Oakley, soon after she was born.
“I found myself screaming at a God that I didn’t believe was there,” Walker said. “I would just stand out in my driveway and yell at someone.”
Following his daughter’s death, Walker wanted a change, a transformation and a healing from what he said was the “disease of me.”
“I went and got a Bible and just started reading, and reading and reading and reading,” he said.
Laney said watching her husband’s transformation and the Holy Spirit work in him was “incredible.” Soon after, Walker turned his life to Christ, accepting Him as his Lord and Savior.
The former hard-drinking atheist was now a son of God.
“I wish my life said, ‘All I ever want is just Jesus, that’s it,’” he said.
