Years ago, I was salmon fishing in another state. My boat guide was a believer, whom I had gotten to know on a previous trip. As we went along the rapids, dragging our lines, he pointed, “Chuck, look over to the banks of the river.”

Row houses, 12 or 15, came into view. Against this ordinary backdrop, he said something I wish were not also ordinary: “There’s incest going on in every one of those homes.”

Chuck, you’re thinking, “Ordinary”? Surely you meant to type a different word!

I didn’t. Incest, rape, adultery...videos of sensual women...little girls sold for sex...promiscuity, drunken “mistakes,” abuses of every kind. None of this is new or extraordinary.

We don’t have to read far into God’s Word before encountering evil. Chapter 3, Adam and Eve choose the fruit. Chapter 4, brother murders brother. Chapter 6, humanity is so disgusting a worldwide flood is in order.

We live in a dark and dirty world. Oh, there are beautiful things and lovely people, but there’s always that undercurrent of immorality—depravity’s dangerous undertow. You can’t move away from it. No one is immune to it—not you, me, or our spouses, children, and mentors. Your house could be next in that row of incestuous homes. Perhaps it already is.

But depravity doesn’t win—it won’t in the end, and it doesn’t have to today. Sin is powerful! “But even greater is God’s wonderful grace” (Romans 5:17).

So, let’s make one resolution this year: to anchor ourselves to God’s grace.

Growing in your faith? Anchor yourself. Reeling from abuse? Anchor yourself. Sickened by how many times you’ve gone back to that website or street corner or shelf where you hide the vodka? Anchor yourself. It’s never too late to start doing what is right. Pray daily: “Lord, I can’t swim in this undertow. Anchor me to your grace.”

And know that you’re not alone.

Insight for Living Ministries has helped individuals fulfil that resolution for 38 years. Every day, someone caught in the undertow hears about Jesus on our broadcast...opens our website instead of pornography...learns to start again through our books—because of our financial partners.

Will you give this month so drowning individuals around the world can discover that it’s never too late to be saved and secured by grace?

It’s never too late. Anchor yourself to grace. As you do, don’t abandon others to the undertow.

Anchored to grace with you,

Charles R. Swindoll