“Ephraim is a cake unturned” (Hosea 7:8)  

The rebellious Northern Kingdom of Israel was often identified as Ephraim, because Ephraim was one of the leading tribes. Hosea describes the Northern Kingdom as an unturned cake, because it wasn't wholly submitted to God. Has your religion become merely dead works to assuage guilt and pay for secret sin? If you forget the basis of your salvation, you gradually stop operating with “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6), and return to dead works to feel good about yourself (Hebrews 6:1). Religious performance can sometimes conceal a lack of love for God, because the saint has forgotten he was forgiven of past sins (2 Peter 1:9). For more on this subject, click here.

The saint in public can be a devil in private. He’s a cake burned on one side, and raw on the other. “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned. Aliens have devoured his strength, But he does not know it” (Hosea 7:8-10). “Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me. They did not cry out to Me with their heart When they wailed upon their beds” (Hosea 7:13-14). The grace of God is available for every saint, but many saints give God only partial obedience. 

My soul, is this you? Are you completely submitted to God? Have you experienced His divine operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? It should be your aim to be sanctified, body, soul, and spirit. Although sanctification will never be perfect in you anywhere, it should be universal in its action; there shouldn’t be the appearance of holiness in one place and dominating sin in another, being a cake unturned.

 Oh, Lord, turn me! Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of Your love, and let it feel the sacred glow. Don’t let me be a double-minded man, but bake me entirely by Your grace!