Thoughts and not prayers.

[unfogged]

Praying for someone isn’t about convincing a puppet master to pull some strings or make a c note magically appear in your wallet.

In my experience that is exactly what it means for most xians.  They are hoping to influence their god to make things better or t the very least to make you understand why he had to screw things up for you as part of his "plan".  Either way, they are looking for an action.

It is a Christians way of guiding someone lost into a relationship with our God.

How exactly is that supposed to work?  If you aren't actually asking your god to change the person into a believer then what do you expect will happen?  Do you think somebody who has likely been surrounded by xians all their life and quite probably used to believe is going to change their mind on their own because you tell them you are going to talk to your invisible friend?

However you boil it down, when a xian says "I'll pray for you" they are thinking that the prayer will be an influence on reality in some way.  It's nothing more than a magic spell and it is insulting that grown people will try to offer that as if it had some value.