You've probably heard your pastor encourage you either personally or through a sermon saying, "Don't quit!" But what happens to those who have already thrown in the towel? Is it too late to get back into the race?

In case you think it's too late for you to get into the race, let me be the one to tell you that it's not. Jesus died on the cross not only for perseverers. He died for quitters, too.

Maybe you just resigned from a job because of the stress, left the faith, quit school or quit a relationship. Most of the time, it's never too late to get back into the game. As long as God breathes breath into you, your story is not yet over.

A biblical example we can follow is no other than the biggest quitter that the Bible ever talks about -- Simon Peter. After Jesus is arrested, the once-zealous follower of Christ loses all hope and denies his master three times (John 18:15-27). A few days after, a resurrected Jesus comes to Peter to find that He has returned to His old life of fishing.

Talk about a quitter! And Peter was the one who claimed that he would take a bullet for Jesus, but in the end he finds himself comfortably slipping back into his old life, his old career and old path. But Jesus has other plans.

We all quit at some point

It doesn't matter who you are or how strong-willed you are. Everyone knows what it feels like to quit because we've all quit at some point ourselves. While quitting is not all that bad, it does always feel like the end of the world.

But Jesus came to redeem not the strong-hearted and persevering. He came to give hope to the hopeless and peace to the restless. Jesus is the light in a darkness full of quitting and lost faith. Going back to the story of Peter, here's Jesus coming to Peter for the nth time to once again establish him and his purpose.

Jesus trusts you even if you don't trust yourself

After Jesus and Peter sit by a fire after the resurrection, Jesus asks Peter the same question three times, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" What's happening here is Jesus is taking away Peter's failures and replacing them with assurances of His purposes.

You may have quit at some point, but that doesn't matter to God because as far as His work is concerned, He's already won the battle for us. He's already finished the race. All we have to do is run the remainder while Jesus is at the finish line waiting for us to get there to celebrate with Him.