The Race Was Not Over
1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
You ran well. You made it all the way until May 21, 2011. Or maybe you ran still more after that and made it to October 21, 2011.
No prizes were given out then though. No rewards were distributed by God to the saints. No commendations of "well done thou good and faithful servant" were heard.
The race was not over then. The race goes to the finish line. In today's world medals are given for second and third place finishers. And running 75% or 85% or 99% of the race is commendable. But not so with the Christian race. The race for an elect child of God goes all the way to the end. To the end of the individual's life. Or to the end of the world.
How sorrowful it is for some who ran a good race the entire Great Tribulation period – but then fainted when the last leg was introduced to us after May 21, 2011. Tired and weary they withdrew. They went backwards rather than pressing ever forward to that glorious mark of a completed run. Yet, by God's grace, a few – also weary, very weary of the contest – kept going forward. Sometimes stumbling and near fainting – yet always upheld by the Spirit and power of God within. They continue on to this day looking ahead with good expectation at the finish line coming into view:
Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?