Nicki Minaj ‘Blessed, Highly Favored, In Love With The Lord’s Mercy’
3 min readAfter conquering music charts, hip hop mogul Nicki Minaj says she is in love with God’s mercy as she prepares to take over the world of television.
The 32-year-old entertainer, who was born Onika Maraj, is gearing up to executive produce and appear in an ABC Family sitcom based on her upbringing in Queens, New York. She took to Twitter to glorify God while auditioning people for the project from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment.
“Blessed. Highly favored. Grateful. Thankful. In love. In love with the Lord’s mercy,” Minaj wrote on Twitter. “Heading to my TV auditions. I’ve found some really amazing people. Still looking for the right woman to play my mother. Can’t wait to share.”
Minaj has been vocal about identifying with Christianity for some time and even thanked her Pastor Lydia Sloley during her acceptance speech for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2015 Video Music Awards last August.
“You know who I want to thank tonight? My pastor Lydia,” Minaj said during her speech. “I love you so much.
Pastor Lydia heads Life in Its Poetic Form Christian Ministries, which is a church located in downtown Brooklyn, New York.
The Supernatural Woman is the book written by her pastor friend, which she supported in 2013 by tweeting, “A must read for all women. On amazon.com – written by my great friend Pastor Lydia Sloley – be inspired.”
On the Amazon website, the description of the book talks about serving Jesus Christ and surrendering to God.
“I will serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with my whole heart. I will choose to live in love and love will live in me,” a description of the book reads. “I will choose to surrender thoughts that violate the will of God for my life. I will obey my Savior’s command and choose to live holy as HE is holy.”
Aside from promoting Christ centered books, Minaj has also publicly endorsed worship music. Earlier this year, the rapper revealed that she was a fan of gospel artists Tasha Cobbs and Jonathan McReynolds.
“BET, Thank u for ‘Celebration of Gospel 2014’ – best show I’ve seen in a long time. I fell in love with Tasha Cobbs and Jonathan McReynolds,” the rapper wrote.
While The New York Times once named Nicki Minaj “the most influential female rapper of all time,” it may have been her mother Carol’s Christian faith and prayers that helped shape the superstar’s spiritual foundation.
“My life as a Christian and believer was opened to Onika. As her career continued to thrive, she developed more concerns about life,” Carol previously told The Christian Post. “She knew I believed in the power of prayer, therefore, she constantly called me and our pastor, to pray for different concerns she may have … I believe by her acknowledging the power of prayer, and her strong desire to tithe, together with a praying mother, contributed to her success.”
The rapper has previously opened up about having a rough upbringing, with a formerly abusive father that turned his life around by going through drug rehabilitation and church.
“He’s still with my mother. He went to rehab and cleaned himself up,” Minaj said in an interview with The Guardian three years ago. “Eventually they started going to church a lot, and he got saved and started changing his life.”
Minaj also told the publication who her heroes were: “God. And my mother.”