Justin Bieber Prays With Kanye West After Telling Fans Their Spiritual Energy Makes Him 'Unhappy'
Justin Bieber has shared an image of himself praying alongside rap moguls Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Kanye West during his Purpose tour just days after he cancelled his meet-and-greet events with fans, saying they're great people but their "spiritual energy" makes him "drained and unhappy."
Bieber, the 22-year-old singer who is touring the country, took to Instagram to reveal that he and the rap moguls spent part of their time together to honor Jesus. "Uncle puff and Yeezy giving thanks to Jesus," Bieber wrote Friday
But it seems Bieber has been struggling spiritually on the tour, which led to his decision to cancel all of his scheduled meet-and-greet events with fans.
"Love u guys.. I'm going to be canceling my meet and greets. I enjoy meeting such incredible people but I end up feeling so drained and filled with so much of other people's spiritual energy that I end up so drained and unhappy ..." Bieber wrote in an Instagram post last week. "Want to make people smile and happy but not at my expense and I always leave feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted to the point of depression. ... The pressure of meeting people's expectations of what I'm supposed to be is so much for me to handle and a lot on my shoulders."
The Canadian crooner recently spoke about his relationship with God during a Feb. 11 interview with GQ magazine where he said: "I feel like that's why I have a relationship with Him, because I need it. I suck by myself. Like, when I'm by myself and I feel like I have nothing to lean on? Terrible. Terrible person."
Although he admits to doing "stupid" things, the "Sorry" singer said his actions would be worse without God.
"If I was doing this on my own, I would constantly be doing things that are, I mean, I still am doing things that are stupid, but … It just gives me some sort of hope and something to grasp onto," Bieber continued. "A feeling of security, and a feeling of being wanted, and a feeling of being desired, and I feel like we can only get so much of that from a human."
Bieber, who came into the public eye as a global phenomenon at only 13 years old, and by 19 he was making headlines for was previously blasted in headlines for allegedly vandalising his neighbor's property, smoking marijuana, using racial slurs and drag racing.
But duing an interview with Complex magazine last year, the pop star said he's now striving to be more like Jesus Christ.
"I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus ... I don't want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind," Bieber told Complex magazine. "If you believe it, he died for our sins. Sometimes when I don't feel like doing something, but I know it's right, I remember, I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't feel like going to the cross and dying so that we don't have to feel what we should have to feel."
Bieber has developed close bonds with the likes of Pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong New York City and Pastor Judah Smith from The City Church in Seattle, Washington, throughout the years, but there was once a time he was a Christian uninterested in attending church.
"Christians leave such a bad taste in people's mouths. I was like, 'I'm not gonna go to church.' I had these church friends and I was like, 'You guys are cool, I like you guys, but I'm not going to church,'" Bieber said in a Complex magazine interview published in October. "Then it was the same thing of, 'Just because you went to a weird church before doesn't mean that this is weird.' It doesn't make you a Christian just by going to church."
"Like I said, you don't need to go to church to be a Christian. If you go to Taco Bell (fast food chain), that doesn't make you a taco," Bieber said. "I think that going to church is fellowship, it's relationship, it's what we're here on the Earth to do, to have this connection that you feel there's no insecurities. I think that's where we need to be."