How often do you see a person who is down about something and you ask them if there is anything you can do to help them?  Pretty regularly i bet.  I bet their response is something close to 'just pray for me'.  Yeah?  The majority, including me have always just been like 'ok, i can do that'.   I'm tired of that being the case.  I want to help these people help themselves.  I believe Hebrews 10:24 says to provoke good between one another.  I've thought of a few questions to just simply ask the person.

1.) "Is there anything you really need prayer for?"
    -my thinking is that this question, to start off with, will just show them that you are interested in how they are and allow them to open up a little bit.
2.) "Is there anything deeper than that?  Like something that is bogging you down personally?"
    -first off assure them your trust. show them Christ's love through your actions and wording. I say wording because if you don't talk like i may then rephrase it a little and make i genuine.  because you really shouldn't be doing this if you dn't really want to help them...
3.) "Would this 'subject of prayer' make your light shine brighter?"
4.) "Would it change your overall life for the better?"
     -make sure that you insist on going deeper each time to figure out the real deep down problem that is bogging them down.  Be sure that their subject meets these requirements. otherwise it doesn't do any good. always go deeper.
5.) "Would it help you glorify GOD more?"
finally 6.) "Is there anything i can physically help you with?"
               -you can always pray for someone and have someone be blessed but we have no idea if the person is all talk and just being nice or if they really are. they are human too so they can forget or so on and so forth.  So you personally have to be willing to help the person.  if they say "i need my yard mowed" then you need to be willing to jump on it.  if you can't do it try to get it done for them somehow.

After you get past those steps just ask them if you can pray a simple prayer for them too right there on the spot.  When i say simple, i mean really super oober duper simple.lol  Like for instance, mine would be that i wake up with my over NOT underneath me so it doesn't hurt in the morning.lol  Thats how simple i mean.  this will take a little bit of the awkwardness of the previous conversation and also something to add to your prayer that you pray with them when you're done.

With all this said its my plan to ask all this to one person a day.  I, personally, am going to try to spend at LEAST 30-45 minutes in prayer for the person.  try to journal as you go with not only their answers but your thoughts as well. again this is only a thought i had come up with earlier.  im just tired of seeing my friends, brothers, and sisters all hurting.  I want to help in whatever way i can to my MAXIMUM potential that GOD himself gave me :)    GOD Bless and good luck.   let me know how you like it.....-Whitman