When something bad happens, public figures often say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.” It sounds good, but do these public figures actually pray—or is it just thoughts they are sending?

The reality is that thoughts alone do no good. They have no power. If people act on the thoughts by offering expressions of sympathy, flowers, money if it is needed, a hug, or even a consoling presence, those actions can be helpful. But thoughts alone do nothing.

I suspect the word “thoughts” has come into common use through those who have no religious faith. They might say, “thoughts and prayers,” but they don’t really pray, and they assume that thoughts are the secular equivalent of prayers. The probably assume that prayers are just thoughts expressed by the religious. They might (or might not) assume that thoughts, like prayers, have some magical or psychic power to travel through space and achieve something, although they likely have no idea how that might work.

Jesus criticized “pagans” (those who do not believe in Jesus) who keep “babbling” (Matthew 6:7), who keep repeating words or rituals in the hope that the words or rituals might have some magic power to achieve something on their own.

True prayer is much different. As Jesus explained in what is now known as “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13), prayer is an appeal to “our Father in heaven,” that is, to the all-powerful God who actually has power to do something about the problem. Further, He is our Father, who loves us and wants to help us. And He is the “hallowed,” or holy, God, who establishes eternal moral principles such as truth and love; in other words, we cannot come to such a God while we are committed to being immoral and expect Him to hear us. Finally, He is the King (Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”). He is the one who has the final say, who decides what will be done or not done. We cannot go to such a God and demand that He do what we say. He is the one who is in charge.

There is a huge difference between “thoughts” and “prayers.” When we pray, we need to know who we are praying to. If we don’t direct our prayers anywhere in particular, they are just “thoughts.” But if we pray to the God who has the power to change things, the God who loves us, the God who is holy, and the God who has the authority to make the ultimate decision, then that is different. Such a God can make a huge difference in the situation of the people we are praying for—unlike mere thoughts—but what He does is ultimately up to Him.