Former rocker turned Christian musician Zach Williams was raised in a loving Christian home, but when he became a teenager, he began drifting away from everything his parents taught him.
"I think that the decisions I've made and the things that happened in my life are all just the results of me taking my eyes off of the Lord and turning my back on the things that I had been raised around and taught," he told The Christian Post.
When Williams started hanging out with the non-Christian crowd, he began running away from the Lord because his Christian calling "scared" him.
"I would go to church for years and be in church and get this conviction on my life and then I would run from it. I was really caught up in myself and doing things that I wanted to do because I knew that being a Christian wasn't easy," he said.
Because of all the bad things that happened in his life when Williams ran away from God, he turned to drugs and alcohol. When he learned to play the guitar at the age of 20, something clicked inside him. The rock and roll music he wrote suited his current predicament — he was away from home, did not have contact with his parents, and separated from all the friends who knew him.
He dropped out of college, got married but then divorced, and began touring with a rock band. He continued living that life until four years ago when he came to the right realisation.
"I was running from all these things that I was trying to succeed so hard at but failed. I was trying to put the blame on everybody else, but instead it was all my fault and I just needed to own up to it and be a man about It," Williams said.
"It really wasn't until 2012 that I truly met Jesus and got saved. I just surrendered my life and gave Him control of everything I was doing in my life. That hole that I was trying to fill for 20 years was finally filled. I didn't have those desires to get messed up on drugs and alcohol like I used to. It was a pretty easy transition for me," he added.
Williams is now remarried and attends church regularly with their children. He also gave up rock and roll music and became a Gospel musician. His new hit single "Chain Breaker" details his journey from drugs and alcohol to God.
"My ministry now is to just tell the world about what God has done in my life and hopefully that will bring other people to Jesus. I'm just a normal guy just like anybody else. I don't feel like I'm changing at all other than the fact that God is giving me opportunities and I don't want to miss those opportunities of where I can go out and share who Jesus is and what He's done in my life," he said.
