What does "our thoughts and prayers" mean?

Question

What does "our thoughts and prayers" mean?

Answer 1

I write that alot in cards and what I mean is that I am truly praying for them and thinking about them off and on throughout the day and feeling their sorrow or pain.

Answer 2

it's the politically correct thing to say when someone dies. no one says "dies", now, it's "passed away". Generally, there's not much else to say when someone dies.

there is no way a dead person is in my thoughts, nor will I say a "prayer" for anyone, especially the dead.

Answer 3

As in "keeping something/somebody in our thoughts and prayers" ?

I think very simply it means we are holding that thing closest to what matters most to us--holding it close to our hearts in a place we reserve for things that deserve our finest care.  

Answer 4

When someone dies, we say to the family members of the deceased that we will keep them in our thoughts in prayers. It means, their pain will become our pain, their loss will be felt as our loss. To keep people in our prayers means, when we pray, we will ask God to strengthen those most affected and ask God to bring a sense of peace and serenity to an otherwise extremely painful time.

Answer 5

The phrase is generally employed in the context of offering one condolences to another following the loss of another of one's ailment.

It simply a gesture to indicate a degree of sympathy in the interest of helping support the individual in distress.