Motivation Techniques on How to Motivate Employees Using Sales Team Training and Free Web Resources

Motivation techniques and how to motivate employees is an area many sales managers find difficult and time consuming. They find it easy to present and supply sales team training on selling skills, but what about motivation techniques. To motivate a sales person you need to offer a regular boost of self motivation. It can take time to constantly find new and refreshing ideas, and give different angles and perspectives on how to get into the most effective selling state. The sales motivation techniques offered here will give you a sales training and motivation program for your sales team using a minimum amount of time. It uses the free resources available on the Internet and it won't cost you a penny. It also gets your team involved from the start and asks them to contribute as the idea grows in size and benefits. 

How it worked for my sales teams

The objective is to build a list of free online sales training and motivation resources available on the Internet and use them in an ongoing motivation program. You probably have some links saved in your favourites list. Your sales team will have some as well.  As a starting point imagine if you had a list of links to all those sales and motivation websites you already know about, all in one easy to access place. This is how I started when looking at how to motivate employees in my sales teams. Then we added all the other sites we came across that had effective sales training or good motivation techniques.

How to put these motivation technique sinto action today

Here's how to put this sales team training into action with your sales teams. First, build the list of good quality links to websites. Present the idea of building an Internet based training and motivation resource to your sales team. Show them a few examples of websites that you use for sales training and information. Ask them to submit their own. Get them to go through their favourites list on their PC's, log into their search history, and ask them to click around the Internet to find new and interesting websites. Get them involved, show them the benefits, and ask for their feedback.

Decide where to keep the list of links

Decide upon the best place to keep your list of sales and motivation websites. You want somewhere that is easy to access, will be remembered, and is accessible by all the sales team. It must also be somewhere that the information and new links can be added regularly. If your organisation has a company intranet then that may be a good place to start building your sales training resource. Shared drives and folders are another good place to park the list of links. You might think of other ideas such as sending it out in a company newsletter, or simply emailing the list to your sales team on a regular basis.

Add some information to each link

To make this list of sales team training and motivation links effective, add a brief description to each link. It only needs a few comments to indicate if the link is about motivation techniques, sales training, or product and industry knowledge. Ask your team to add these comments when they submit a new link to be added to the list. You could take this further and add a rating system from 1 to 5 on how effective and useful they think the website is.

Keep the list updated

Keep the list updated and over time you will build an enormous resource of sales training and motivation techniques. The more comprehensive the descriptions and comments about the website are the more effective and useful your list will be. Think what could happen if you expand and develop the use of this free resource. What if you included more people within your organisation and expanded the topics covered by this list of websites. As long as the list is separated into categories for each topic, and perhaps even a contents page written, it will remain useful and effective.

Add a motivation training schedule

Once we brought all these great website links together we set certain times of the week to make the best use of these motivation techniques. Motivation training works best in short bursts with specific objectives. There a certain times of the week when a quick burst of motivation, a new sales training idea, or examples of proven marketing techniques, are most effective.

Monday morning after a weekend break 15 minutes on a good website, with short sharp self motivation techniques, can get you into a selling state. Friday morning we have found clicking on websites with time management, or prospecting tips, which can be used the following week, can have a great effect. When you have a tough day facing difficult objections and can't close sales, then a sales training site is a good way to finish the day. These are examples of how we use these sales team training motivation techniques. You can adapt them, develop them, and find how to motivate your employees using a list of good Internet links. The sales team have bought into the idea because they helped to build the list. 

I'm Stephen Craine, a working sales manager and trainer. If you like the motivation training techniques offered here then my advice is to take that first action today. You know what will happen if you put it off and leave it for later, it just will not get done and you'll miss out on the benefits of these techniques. Take one step towards creating your list now, and also think about where you are going to store it. It only takes one person to start this list rolling and others will soon join in and want to share the resource. So let me offer you these first links and descriptions to start your sales team training and motivation list of web pages and free resources on the Internet.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

The home page of my sales training website for all sales people, self employed and small business owners, and sales managers.
http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-training-free.html

Free sales training that you can use today and start using to increase your sales results. Sales training on: Basic sales training for people new to sales. Sales training on using a sales process. How to make sales appointments. Simply copy and paste the above links and descriptions and you have started your list of sales training and motivation techniques for you and your sales team. Mail these first 2 links out to your team and let them know about the free training resource you are starting. Add the links to your company intranet, shared drives or folders, or send out a regular update by email. This could be the start of something big and you will get the credit.

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Leveraging a Sales Person's Motivation

Sales people who have clear objectives, the required competencies, and a supportive working environment still require a level of desire, willingness and positive thinking to complete tasks or sales activities in order to optimize performance. This state of willingness could be restated as motivation, the mental game or the internal forces that affect the outcomes, intensity and perseverance of a sales person's voluntary behavior.

Sales Managers need to evaluate each sales person's motivation, skills and the thinking supporting them due to shifting corporate goals and competitive threats. Given that there is a broad range of individualistic practices within the sales population, it is likely that each sales person is motivated in different ways and a good sales manager or sales leader, according to my experience, has the responsibility to identify those differences and leverage the individual potential from each and every sales person.

In David C. McCelland's theory of learned needs he suggests that achievement, affiliation and power are the important sources of motivation. As he suggests, however, high achievers are self-motivated to high levels of achievement while low achievers require direction and reinforcement from others. He goes on to say that employees can learn to become more achievement oriented but recognizes that there are different types of employees bringing a balance to our social framework.

This is why it is so key that sales managers understand sales people for the individuals that they really are. Daniel Goleman, who has done extensive work in the area of Emotional Intelligence, suggests that those employees with potential are motivated by a desire to achieve for the sake of achievement and states further that managers with strong emotional intelligence are themselves self-motivated individuals - These principles should then apply to sales people and sales managers.

If motivated sales people are more willing to exert certain effort over a period of time in order to achieve a goal, then what role does the sales manager have in his or her interaction with that sales person?

It is important for sales managers to have a grasp of each sales person level of ability and motivation according to Dr. Paul Hersey. He suggests that the ownership of the task between the sales manager and the sales person be shared in accordance to the various possible levels of both ability and readiness. A training company named Gilmore and Associates devised a model that incorporates these notions and I have worked with them to further its usefulness.

It is important that a sales manager determines what the over all ability of a sales person is prior to attempting to teach, share or transfer the key aspects of the tasks to that employee.

The same holds true for motivation but I would suggest that the aspects of motivation are often overlooked by sales manages as it is the more difficult of the two to identify and manage. Just as with ability an evaluation of motivation should be considered and then skillfully engage, encourage and recognize the mental game and thinking of each individual sales person.

[I believe that ability is mind to hand while motivation is mind to heart. Think of it this way - Sales Performance equals Ability (Mind to Hand) times Motivation (Mind to Heart) or SP=A(MH)XM(MH)]

Sales managers often remedy performance issues with more skills training when from my experience more often than not the underlying performance issue is the thinking and motivation of the sales person. This generally means the wrong solution for the wrong problem incurring more overhead cost, lost opportunity cost and often a further slippage in the motivation of the sale person.

Different levels of the sales person's ability will mean a different coaching style on behalf of the sales manager in order for the task to be completed at the required level of performance. Lower ability will mean more sales manager involvement and a specific teaching style will be necessary. As ability increases so too does the ownership of the task by the sales person increase, as he or she will begin to determine what is required in order to complete it. A sharing style becomes the most commonly used style by sales managers during this next phase. As the sales person's ability level optimizes the role of the sales manager shifts more to a transferring style. Involvement of the sales manager is far less and ownership for the task is now primarily that of the sales person.

Typically the same holds true for levels of motivation (M) with respect to the same task although the characteristics and processes for engaging it are more emotional than behavioral. It is here that the passion for sales managing sales people comes to the forefront.

Sales managing a sales person with low motivation will require a nurturing sales manager, one that will engage in the values and principles of the sales person more so than technical abilities for that task. I believe that emotional factors have to engage the sales person's values in order to stimulate the whole sales person. As the sales person's motivation improves you follow through with encouragement reinforcing the positive and helping them see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the highest level of motivation you simply recognize their capability supporting them to the highest possible level of success.

A sales person with high ability and motivation with respect to a specific task is more apt to have higher levels of success with the role of the sales manager being that of a provider of information or in a position to just delegate and reward with little need for intense interaction.

As a sales manager's proficiency increases with the use of this model, his or her competency at identifying the issues of ability and motivation will also increase. This will provide the sales manager with an advantage as he or she mentors and coaches his or her sales people for greater results. For the longest time I have used this model intuitively but from time to time I have been known to reference a wallet size cheat sheet that I have carried with me for at least twenty years. A real testimonial to the Gilmore model!

Ron Foss is the Senior Partner of EQ Management Group committed to improving management capability and more information can be discovered at http://www.eqmg.com

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The Importance of Sales Management Motivation

In previous shows we talked about the importance of motivation. And how profound an impact a good sales manager has on the sales performance of his team if he can motivate and keep his team highly motivated at all times. It is a tremendously important skill for all of us to learn, especially in this type of economic environment.

The difference between sales performance above expectation and sales performance below expectation is largely determined by small things that a sales manager can do every day to keep his sales team at the top of their game and highly motivated.

If you are a front line sales manager, or an owner of a business, or maybe even in a sales training department, you are not out with your sales people all of the time, so you need to have them motivated even when you are not there.

We have talked about a couple of different ways to motivate, specifically about these motivational profiles which we have spoken about. For our paid members there's a motivational questionnaire which creates a sales motivational profile for each of your sales people, you end up motivated each one slightly different although they do overlap in the 5 metrics that we talk about.

And today we are going to talk about a common way that a lot of people are motivated:
"The need to feel important", or prestige.

This type of sales person after you fill out your questionnaire, and get good idea was to where their motivations are, has a profound drive to feel important.

Dale Carnegie once said that we all have profound drive to feel important.

With sales people, there are varying degrees of this. There are certain characteristics that this type of sales person shares that will help you uncover those deep profound motivations and get them to a sales performance level that is above expectations.

One of the characteristics of this group is that they depend heavily on the feedback of others. One of the major feedback mechanisms that a sales person has is through their front line sales manager. We have many members in the academy, who historically have not been front line managers, but are switching over from other fields because of economic conditions.

We also have lots of business owners who have many sales people out there, but who have never actually managed sales people.

The sales people that you may be training typically they are looking for any type of feedback and/or reinforcement as to whether what they are doing is correct, or not.

This is a very popular and common motivational profile; the need to feel important.

I would surmise that if you have 10 sales people, chances are 9 out of 10 of them have this profound drive to feel important. Some probably, maybe 1 or 2 have it more than the rest of them.

They have a very strong need to show evidence of their achievement to others. This might be perceived as an attempt to show superiority. Sometimes these people are ridiculed by their co-workers because they have the need to feel important and to have the need for others to recognize them for their tasks.

A lot of people may feel that this type of sales person is extremely egotistical. In fact it really masks the profound feelings of inferiority, the opposite end of the spectrum.

As a result of that, they may suffer from poor self esteem. This is the value that the sales rep places upon them, which is the way that they feel about themselves. Making this kind of sales person feel good about themselves is the key to motivation and it heightens their self esteem and it increases your chances of sales success both with them as a sales manager as well as them as your sales person.

The level of self esteem that each person has must be assessed by the sales manager primarily by observation. You have to be able to pick up these cues that show whether your sales person has high, or low, or moderate self esteem.

And this is somewhat tricky to do, that's why we give you the questionnaire. You can use the questionnaire in conjunction with your own observations. You have to be tuned into the highs and lows of your sales people and look at whether this person has a profound need to feel important. There may be some insecurity that they have, and a good sales manager will pick up on this.

The good thing about sales people in general is that the sales rep that generally feels good about themselves usually succeeds. Poor self esteem leads to approaching some tasks with an expectation of failure, which reinforces these feelings of insecurity.

Not that we want to get into Psychology 101 here, but you are dealing with humans so you need to be careful and in tune with these highs and lows. Feelings of self esteem can lead to poor performance. We've all had times when we've entered a new venue and we haven't really felt good that day, or whatever the reason is, and we end up being not as successful as we are when we are brimming with confidence.

This is not only a sales person sales manager principal, but it is a human principal as well.

Failure to one area of a job might lead to failure in other multiple areas. With the prestige driven sales rep, it is hard for them to compartmentalize their areas of weakness. They want to be perfect in so many different ways, because they have high expectations for themselves; they might over- react to failures. You must safe guard against this as a sales manager.

Now with this type of sales rep you have to be careful with criticism and sarcasm with this sales person. This typically isn't the type of person that you can joke with and make fun of because it goes the opposite way. You can joke with someone who has good self esteem about their failures or ways in which they are deficient because they can deal with it because their self esteem is good on the whole. A prestige driven sales person that you denigrate will end up feeling poorly the whole day, and they take it much more personally then someone who has higher self esteem.

Everyone wants to feel important, we all do, but if you have 10 or 12 sales people probably 1, 2 or 3 of them have this kind of profile that you have to be careful not to criticize, especially publicly. Make sure that you do it in private.

The best way to motivate this group of sales people is to use the Talents Based Motivational Model. This boosts their self esteem and their performance. It is very simple to implement.

We have talked about talents in other shows. It is important to differentiate between these two things called talents and skills. Marcus Buckingham in "Break All of the Rules" was the first person to talk about.

Talents Motivational Model is an effective way to get the best way to get the most out of your sales people. Talents Motivational Model is the best way to motivate prestige driven sales people because you uncover their tower of strength while as much as you can, minimizing their individual weaknesses.

Talents are inherent, genetically encoded patterns of thoughts and behavior. In essence, these are what we call "nature". Talents are things that they do "naturally"; they didn't really have to work at them. Things that came to them naturally

Skills learned abilities that can be passes on from person to person through instruction. Like product knowledge or industry experience is a skill, passed from one person to the next. Learning to use and EXCEL spreadsheet is something that can be learn from another person. To excel in a particular task, let's say you have a sales person that is extremely talented at building rapport, this is a talent that they have. You can harness it and turn into something that makes them more money by and bringing it out and highlighting it. Maybe they aren't so good at the administrative side of things, no sales person is really, so you would minimize it and mitigate it as much as you possibly can so that you can highlight the things that they are good at, get them the self esteem boost that they are looking for and this will in turn have a carry over effect to other areas of their job responsibilities.

A sales manager can draw out more talents from their sales reps but they just can't be installed there in the first place.

Each of your sales reps have areas of talents which push your sales people to be better at the things they are good at and minimize the things that aren't so good at.

As a base understanding of how to motivate this group, look at them and ask yourself, "what are they good at?" Observe them. What are they really good at? What do they excel at? Find out what that one thing is. Maybe it is making small talk. Maybe it is asking introductory type questions. Maybe it is making people feel at ease. Maybe it is their sense of humor. Look for this in your observations and then build upon it. And then minimize their weaknesses. Making them feel good, feel important and then in turn that will have a carry over effect into their sales performance.

Couple of things that you can do is to ask them a set of questions.

Some of the questions might include:

What are you best at in sales?
What do you feel that you are best at?
What do you have a supreme talent for?
What do you like to do the most?
If you could have one thing, what one thing would that be?
That would give you an idea of what they are motivated about.
If you had $10,000 to spend, how would you spend it?

This isn't necessarily going to give you a talent, but it will give you tendencies as to what they are interested in.

Chances are that in which they have interested is what they are talented at.

I once had a sales rep that was really good at cooking. And he never really harnessed this talent. I said, "Why don't you talk about his more?", because he really was an incredible cook. People are interested in this.
This is a common way to build rapport. He started doing this and he starting getting into places that he hadn't gotten into before.

The point is this, that talent and interest got him in and really did improve his overall sales performance. And I would highly encourage you to do the same as a sales manager by observation and by utilizing these types of questions.

To review, the ways to motivate sales people who are driven by a need to feel important:

• They depend heavily on the feedback of others, primarily you as their sales manager
• They often times are misperceived as a feeling
• They suffer from poor self esteem, so be cognizant of that
• Failure in one area might lead to failure in multiple areas
• They tend to be perfectionists
• Be careful using criticism with this group
• Use talents and skills to boost their self esteem
• Draw out more of their talents and highlight them to use as a leverage point

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales manager training.

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How to Motivate Your Sales Team So They STAY Motivated: Build a Foundation of Motivation

Do you feel that your sales team needs constant motivation? Do you feel you continuously have to pump-them-up just to meet minimum sales quotas? Of course, there is always a need for continuous positive and constructive input from sales management. However, your sales force should never become completely dependent on motivational food alone. When the team becomes hooked on the regular and excepted motivational high, they become like addicts who, without that fix, slip into the sales abyss.

If you feel sales production rises and falls according to the amount of handholding or cheerleading time the sales team receives, then you need to build your team on a motivational foundation rather than motivational rhetoric.

My team is already motivated

Some may be thinking, "My team seems to be as motivated as they can be and not always when I am around to pump them jump." Many sales managers and directors believe that since the team seems to be moving right along; sales are ok, production is par-for-the-course and no one is complaining, then the team must be on track. Since you have received no criticism and no one has quit this week, then everything must be OK---right? The biggest sign of an under-motivated team is no sign at all. That is when you get a quiet, steady flow of the "Just enough to get by," mentality and sales people who meander in a maze of mediocrity. Build on a foundation of motivation and reach new levels of production.

Silent Motivation

Unfortunately today, many sales managers believe that motivating a team means to engage the impressionable, unsuspecting souls in some ear-shattering, tambourine banging, adrenaline pumping rah-rah, you-can-do-it pep rally for an hour or two. While others feel that motivating is to utter the right words at the right time, lifting someone's spirits after she has lost a big sale. Or, to deliver a speech at the sales meeting to fire the team up so they will believe they can do a little better this quarter than the last.

While those thoughts have their merit, they are temporary and superficial. However, there are real, tangible, technical and structural measures that you and your company can take to help sales people develop true enthusiasm in their hearts, and a sense of self-motivation that will inspire them to greatness. True motivation comes from within.

Below are three motivational pillars to build a foundation for your sales force.

Concentrate on these three concepts, and the rest of your problems will take care of themselves! Be forwarded however, that these tips are probably not what you were expecting and some people are not going to take this very well. However, like most good medicine, it may taste bad going down, but it is what you really need.

Pillar #1: Show Your Sales Team That the Company Cares

Contrary to popular belief, the primary motivating factor for sales people is NOT the money. It is true that most sales people originally join the organization they work with primarily due to the lure of money. However, the primary reason they stay with the firm is that they feel the company cares about them-personally. Prove to your sales team that you care about them: their personal welfare, their success. Let them know that you put their success before yours and the company's, and they will stay motivated from the inside.

Sales People Come First

Frankly, as a sales manager, putting the sales person first, should be your personal philosophy anyway. If they fail, you and the company fail. Their success does come before yours. Often however, sales people feel as though the company puts everything and everybody before them. Many sales people feel the firm only cares about the money, and that they, as individuals, are as expendable as any tool or pawn. When people reach this low self-worth mindset, no amount of money, cheering or anything else will motivate them to reach high levels of success. To build on a foundation of motivation, first you must show sales people that the company cares, and note, I said SHOW them not TELL them.

How to SHOW Your Firm Cares

So, how do you show, demonstrate or otherwise prove that the company cares for the sales person? In fact, how do you know if you are doing that now or not? Look at some of your organization's policies and begin with your pay schedule. I am not referring to the amount you pay your sales people, nor the commission structure. The question is WHEN do you pay your sales people?

In many an organizations, the sales person, who is responsible for generating the money in the first place, receives his or her pay (the commissionable portion) last. If your firm pays the receptionist, the secretaries, the cleaning people, the VPs, you, the CEO, CFO, CIO, and everyone else first, then pays the sales person out of the leftovers, you are not putting the sales person first. Now of course, one could argue that technically, everyone is involved in the sale, not just the sales person, and that is true. There is the CIO and the website that attracted the lead, the marketing crew that created the sales collateral, the receptionist who answered the call, shipping who got out the literature on time, etc. However, if that sales person does not go out and close the sale, the fact is, none of those people ever get paid. Look at your pay schedule, your charge-back rules, your benefits plan, the sales break room, your intranet. Look deep and be honest. Are you putting the sales team first?

Pillar #2: Treat Sales People like the Executives They Are.

Treat your sales team as if they are true executives; directors or CEOs and give them the support they need to perform as such. Create a sales support system that allows sales people to do what they need to do: SELL.

In an effort to save money, too many organizations pile a bunch of petty, non-essential, non-sales tasks on the sales team. Someone figures that the organization can save $25,000 by NOT hiring an administrative person to handle some paperwork. Instead, "Let's just have the sales people do it." Well, you might save the $25,000 salary of the admin person, but you will lose a million dollars in the process. What is obvious and quantifiable is the time your sales people must spend doing things other than selling. What is much harder to calculate is the enormous loss you suffer due to the damage to the sales person's psyche. How can you convince someone that they can go out and secure a seven-figure deal, when you have them doing four-figure work all day? Give your sales team a support system and staff so they can spend 90% to 95% of their time on income producing activities, and they will feel like executives and you will see motivation from within.

Pillar #3: Get Sales People Involved in Company Decisions

One of the main reasons people become sales professionals is because they want to be in control of their destiny. Most sales people will tell you that feeling in charge of their income and controlling their fate is a driving force in their career decision.

When a sales person feels that the company will do whatever they want, whenever they want, it's all over. With total disregard for the sales person, the company makes blatant decisions that significantly and often adversely affect the sales person's life and family. The sales person feels like they no longer control their own fate when they have no say in decisions. Also, keep in mind that every sales person believes they know more about the industry and what is going on in the field than anyone at the office or corporate. Whether that is true or not, the fact is the sales person's primary security of being in charge of his or her fate is lost.

Before any major or reasonably significant decision, meet with the sales team, individually. Let each know that their opinions and ideas count. This does not mean that you have to agree or follow their suggestions. In fact, the sales team will be grateful no matter what happens because they feel involved.

Build a foundation of motivation for your sales team:

Show the sales team the company cares about them
Treat the sales team like the executives they are
Involve the sales team in company decisions

Once you establish a motivational foundation, you will significantly decrease turnover, increase sales and maximize productivity. Then and only then will those rah, rah, you-can-do-it pep rallies begin to make sense, dollars and sense!

John Landrine http://www.writebusinesssolution.com is a former CEO/GM with 25 years real world experience who provides article, book and e-Book writing and ghostwriting with strong SEO, keyword dense content. John also produces high quality self-help and motivational writing and training. He can create training manuals for entry-level to advanced direct sales and telephone sales training, motivation and consultation. In addition, John can supply professional sales presentations, sales manuals and collateral, sales and marketing strategy, planning and design and database/CRM training.

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Words Of Inspiration Encouragment Reassurance and Motivation Which Exist In No Other Literature

Having dealt with some startling realities and spiritual truths, the writer of Psalm 94 goes on to ask and answer further significant questions.

In verse 9 he asks - He Who made the ear - He Who made you hear - do you not think that He Himself can hear? And He Who formed the eye - moulded and shaped it - it is the word used by the potter working with clay - do you not think He can see all that is going on?

God disciplines - punishes - and teaches. There are people who shy away from this aspect of the character of Almighty God, but if you stay close to the Scripture, you will not go far wrong.

God knows the thoughts of man and He knows that they are futile.

We can have good ideas - things we would like to do - but if the anointing of God is not upon them, they are futile. God's intimate knowledge of man is a astonishing and astounding truth - and a truth which makes us be very very careful as to what we say and what we do.

Nothing escapes His knowledge.

In John Chapter 2 verses 24 - 25, we read of how Jesus Christ knew all men, and He knew what was in a man - it is so similar to what is revealed in this Psalm. Always remember that the God of the Old Testament is exactly the same God as is revealed in the New Testament. After all, there is no other!

At this point, it is as if the Psalmist re-tunes his harp to play softer melodies. Blessed is the man you discipline. There is a difference between being disciplined and being punished. In some areas of life we are aware of that and can usually recognise it, but somehow it is not so easily recognised in the spiritual realms.

There is another person blessed - the man You teach from Your law.

The Psalmist places discipline before teaching - establishing a principle which has almost been reversed in these days - "Without discipline there can be no real teaching."

When discipline is abandoned, teaching ceases. If a teacher cannot exercise discipline he cannot really teach. But - God goes even further - He will not try to teach those who refuse His discipline.

Understand something of the nature of these blessings - "You grant him relief from days of trouble." We are confronted here with two alternatives. We can come under God's discipline now and be preserved from His judgement, or we can refuse God's discipline now and come under His Judgement in days which lie ahead - and, we either discipline ourselves or God will discipline us - or send someone else to discipline us.

There is a most reassuring word in verse 14. The Lord will not reject His People. He will never forsake His Inheritance. He will never go back on those whom He has chosen. He will never go back on His choice of Israel - NEVER.

His judgement will again be founded on righteousness. When God acts as Judge, He is always right. Always.

Then, comes this call in verse 16 - Who will rise up? Who will take a stand? Who in these present days will stand, and go on standing for truth and righteousness? God is looking for people, who will rise up, and stand, and testify and witness.

The Psalmist remembers how God had helped him. When he thought he was slipping - there was a presence - a love - a support.

Almighty God is so understanding. He knows all about our weaknesses, and He does not reject us on account of them. He does not ask us to come before Him, or present ourselves to the world, with a façade of strength, which has no basis in reality. All He asks is that we sincerely yield to HIM.

The Psalmist realised that he could not save himself. When we think that things are almost getting out of hand, and we are losing control - when He hears our voice - our cry for help - He is there to support and uphold.

Verse 19 - When I experienced anxiety - what honesty - this man of God could still be touched by anxiety - and he was unafraid to admit it. Our God shows us His man - going through times and seasons of ANXIETY - and he finds God consoling him - and bringing joy to his soul.

Has it not been in such times that we experience the joy of God flooding our lives - the Holy Spirit ministering to us in a new but real and realistic way - reassuring us - or whatever it might be.

Sometimes, the greater the pressure, the more powerful is the consolation.

He asks another question in verse 20 - and the answer is a conspiracy against the throne of God and the people of God - with one goal - one aim - death.

But the Lord has become my fortress - my Rock - my Masada. He closes on a powerful triumphant note. He will deal with the sinful enemy and his wickedness. He will deal with them totally and finally.

I have been to Masada by the Dead Sea on various occasions and that is a rock which was and is virtually impregnable. The Romans built a ramp to capture and kill the 900 Israelis atop the spacious rock by using Israeli slaves to build the ramp! The enemy will do anything at times to get at the people of God.

In one sense, this Psalm is all about living our life in the Presence of God - with everything else going on around us - and we can discern His Presence - His Absolute Control - His Sovereignty - His Being in Charge - His Care - His Strength - His Supportive and Supporting Love.

There are words of inspiration, encouragement and motivation here, which you will not find anywhere else in the entire world of literature.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.

His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Sandy Shaw
sandyshaw63@yahoo.com

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