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November 8 Daily Devotional

Morning and Evening

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“Ephraim is a cake not turned” (Hosea 7:8).

Bible Reading

Hosea 7:8–10

Devotional

A cake not turned is uncooked on one side. And so, in many respects, Ephraim was untouched by God’s grace. Even though there was some partial obedience, there was still much rebellion left.

My soul, I charge you, examine yourself to see whether this is the case with you. Are you thorough in the things of God? Has grace gone through the very centre of your being so that you feel its divine operations in all your powers, your actions, your words, and your thoughts? Your aim and prayer should be to be sanctified—spirit, soul, and body. And even though sanctification may not be perfect in you anywhere in its degree, yet it must still be everywhere in you in its working. There should not be the indication of holiness in one place and reigning sin in another. Otherwise you, too, will be a cake not turned.

A cake not turned is soon burnt on the side nearest the fire. And even though no one can have too much religion, there are some who seem burnt black with bigoted zeal for that part of truth that they’ve received. There are others who are charred to a cinder with a vainglorious Pharisaic display of those religious performances that suit their temperament. The assumed appearance of superior sanctity frequently accompanies a total absence of all vital godliness. The super-spiritual saint in public is often a devil in private. He deals in flour by day and in soot by night. The cake which is burned on one side is raw dough on the other.

If that’s how it is with me, O Lord, please turn me! Please turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of your love and let it feel the sacred glow. Please let my burnt side cool a little so that I learn my own weakness and lack of heat when I am away from your heavenly flame. Please do not let me be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace. For well I know that if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of your grace, I must be consumed forever amid everlasting burnings.

[June 23]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.

 

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