We hope you enjoy this re-post from August 21, 2014. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. – Ecclesiastes 3:1, KJV

It’s a common feeling. You start thinking about all of the things you have to do, and before you know it, you feel completely overwhelmed. You think, “I’ll never be able to get it all done!”, and as you dwell on this thought, you cause yourself anxiety and stress.

God’s Word has many things to say about stress management, one of which is found in Ecclesiastes 3:1. Long before modern society came up with the buzzword “[to] compartmentalize” – which means “to separate (something) into sections or categories” – God taught His creation the value of approaching life in a compartmentalized way. Bound by time and by our finiteness, it is impossible for us to accomplish everything we want to accomplish in one, single moment of time. Yet, so often, our brains attempt to do just that! Considering at the speed of thought all that we must do, we become overwhelmed when we realize we cannot, with the snap of our fingers, do it all at once. We have to train our minds to compartmentalize and to prioritize our projects, and then we need to give focused attention to each goal, task, or responsibility in its proper order and time.

God not only communicated this sentiment through the poetry of Ecclesiastes. He also modeled it for us in the six days of creation. Fully capable of creating everything in an instant, God instead chose to break up the creation project into six compartments, tackling each part of the project in its proper time. In addition, Jesus taught Martha (and, therefore, us) to quit being anxious about all of the stuff we have to do and, instead, focus on the one, most important thing in front of us at the moment.

Want to fight back against that feeling of being overwhelmed? Then learn how to compartmentalize and to prioritize. This habit usually doesn’t come easy; it takes effort to train your mind to think in new ways. To start the process of retraining, practice setting aside fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or sixty minutes to tackle the most important task you need to accomplish right now. Force yourself to avoid thinking or worrying about anything else while you do so. If concern over other things keeps nagging at you, pray that God would shoulder those burdens for you while you focus on the most important burden at hand.

If you can learn to compartmentalize and to prioritize your responsibilities, you won’t completely eliminate that feeling of being overwhelmed from your life. But, you will be very successful in minimizing its impact, making those anxious moments fewer and farther between.