Psalm 50:21

These things you have done and I kept silent;
you thought I was altogether like you.
But I will rebuke you
and accuse you to your face.
(NIV)

This verse is why I chose this passage.

Let me give you an example... You are in school, you need an answer to number 27 on your quiz. Your friend doesn't have their test covered up as well as they should. You know that it is wrong to cheat, but you chance it. You get the answer and nothing happens. You were sweating it though, you had never cheated before. You were antsy, nervous, afraid, and feeling guilty... but all of that eventually passes when the wrath of God doesn't come down on you.

So... you do it again. And again, and again, and again. Before you know it, you are a full fledged cheater. You are cheating all of the time.

As a generation that has grown up in a Christian environment, there are many of us who begin sinful lifestyles this way. There are adults, who grew up in a Christian home that begin taking steps away from God, and when nothing happens, they go full force.

Just don't be mistaken about God's character. Some people mistake God's silence for a great many things. They might think that it is lack of care, or some even think that it is His approval. They begin to think that God is like them... But He is not. It is very clear here that His silence does not mean that He has changed His mind about sin.

This is a great verse for Biblical Counselor's use. So often we meet people who are in this boat of thinking the wrong way about God. They have made decisions about Him, not based on scripture, but based on their own observations of life. They assumed that God's silences meant something because if they were God, that is what their silence would have meant. God is not like us though. Sure, we were created in His image, but that image has since become marred.

God's silence is nothing else but His grace and His patience. We need to see it for what it really is. He gives so much time for repentance, but don't wait, the time is short.