In a time when our world is growing in its skepticism about everything, especially faith in God, I find myself needing go back to the core reasons why I, Blair Hayward, believe in and follow Jesus Christ. So, I thought I would lay it out for you hoping you will find this to be an encouragement today.

Here are my four main reasons as to why I am, and remain, a Christian:
1. I believe in Jesus Christ because He changed my life: I keep coming back to the fact that I was not looking to become a Christian or to believe in God. Although I was interested in being a good person and having others like me, I was completely ignorant of what it meant to be a Christian. God saw fit to seek after me and show me who He is. I know that personal experience is subjective and doesn’t carry much weight with those who want concrete answers, but the fact remains that there is a major difference in the focus and character of my life from before I surrendered my life to Christ, to after. Following Jesus has changed my life from confusion to purpose, from bondage to sin to spiritual freedom, and from lostness to a soul-level peace.

2. I believe in Jesus Christ because He fulfilled prophecy: There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled in his first coming. That is astounding to me! Think of it, hundreds and even thousands of years before Jesus was born, precise predictions were made about His birth, life, death, and resurrection. Some of the prophecies which I find amazing are Isaiah 9:6-7 and Micah 5:2 which speak of Jesus' birth and birthplace, and Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and Psalm 22 which describe with incredible detail the crucifixion of Jesus and its meaning. The clincher for me is what the Bible says of Jesus in Luke 24:27, 44-47 “27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… 44 He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’” I really would have liked to have been there when Jesus took his followers through the Old Testament and showed them exactly where it spoke about Him.

3. I believe in Jesus Christ because He rose from the dead: On numerous occasions Jesus predicted He would be arrested, tried, beaten, executed, laid in a tomb, and three days later, rise from the dead (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). AND HE DID IT (Mark 16:6-7)! No one…I repeat…no one else has ever accomplished such a task. In fact, Jesus told the Pharisees that His resurrection from the dead is the sign proving Him to be the Son of God (Matthew 12:39-40). I am trusting my salvation and eternal life to a living Savior.

4. I believe in Jesus Christ because He changed His disciples’ lives: This comes back to my first reason. The disciples, like me, were not looking to change the world. In fact their hope of Jesus being the Messiah of God was pulverized after He was arrested and crucified. They deserted Him and hid themselves away from the authorities (Mark 14:50; John 20:19). But what really gets me is that they went from being scaredy cats, to bold lions for God in the very city where Jesus was crucified! So what happened? See reason number three. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead, appeared to His disciples on numerous occasions, and taught them about the Kingdom of God before ascending to heaven is why their lives changed so dramatically. Tradition says that all but one (John) of the 11 apostles were martyred for their faith in Christ. Would they really be capable of maintaining a lie for all those years? Would they really be willing to die for something they knew to be false? I think not.

These are the main reasons I follow Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. What are yours?