There was a moment in Andy Cherry’s life when he just wasn’t sure. Fresh out of high school, leading worship at church in the morning and playing music in bars at night, he stood up to sing during a service one morning and something just didn’t feel right. “I didn’t want to be there. I thought, ‘I’m wasting my time.’ And then it just hit me. God was touching people where they were and He didn’t need me to work in their lives,” says Cherry, now 25, newly married to wife Michelle, and poised to release his first LP Nothing Left to Fear on Essential Records, March 6.

“That was the moment where I thought, ‘OK, this is bigger than me, and I’d better get on board. I’d better hold on for dear life and follow wherever God leads me.’” You’ll sense the musical and spiritual growth Cherry’s been led toward in Nothing Left to Fear, which he created alongside highly regarded producer and five-time SESAC Christian songwriter of the year, Jason Ingram.

Stomping percussion underlines the celebratory refrain of “Rise with a shout, cry out, our God’s alive!” in leadoff single, “Our God’s Alive.” Gentle fingerpicked guitars lead through “Running to Our Savior,” an expression of God’s comfort in the face of loss. And “Nothing to Fear”—with its refrain of “Why should I worry/ When Your love surrounds me?”—grounds the album’s overarching sense of the comfort and hope that comes with faith, the knowledge that worry is needless, that God will sustain you. But Cherry also funneled the struggle and uncertainty that lingers, and the honest questioning that comes with both, into Nothing Left to Fear.

Opening track “City of Light” — a lush melodic rock anthem — ended up a treatise to God that asks Him to awaken our hearts and for that to be recognized. It started as the expression of a personal breaking point, when Cherry was confused and lost and needed to be reminded that a new day would dawn. That song and others — “He Has Done it All,” about how God has made us complete; “Beautiful Morning,” in which Cherry sings, “I need nothing, but Your love”–aren’t just proclamations of devotion but reminders and sources of comfort to Cherry himself.

To Cherry, there’s strength — and closeness to God — in admitting that you haven’t figured it all out. Nothing Left to Fear is his admission, and his invitations to question, learn, grow and worship with him, together. “The reason I do what I do is because I want to compel people to a deeper walk with God,” says Cherry.