Thoughts just rattle around randomly in our own minds; perhaps we share them with a friend but mostly they are just kept to ourselves. A prayer, however, has an end receiver. Those of us who believe in God are constantly communicating with Him, and even as we have a thought it becomes a missal, quickly projected into the heavens. At the speed of light it hits its target, the God of the universe, true Creator and in charge of all things on earth. That good wish we have for someone becomes a powerful intervention on their behalf, instead of just rumblings in our head.
I think of it like a situation where you know your younger brother has been playing with matches. You have a choice as to whether to let your parents know about this new and exciting interest he has found. If you don’t tell them, but just keep it as a thought in your head, perhaps nothing bad happens but there is also a good chance that he may cause harm to himself or others in the near future, if he does not understand how dangerous fires can be. If you tell your parents, they will have an opportunity to intervene and make the consequences of playing with a potentially destructive object much more clear to him, as he may disregard your admonitions as envy on your part. By trusting your parents’ intervention, you may prevent future casualties.
The first instance reminds me of a thought, versus the second, which seems more like a prayer. When we ask God to protect, love, intervene or take charge of a situation, we are relying on Him to take care of the person in the situation and bring the best outcome possible for all involved. Since we are limited in our own knowledge of the situation, we cannot know the best way to do that, but the relationship we have with God has taught us to trust that He has full knowledge and wants the best for all of us. That is why I always turn a thought immediately into a prayer and do not hesitate to always reference it as exactly that. It seems when someone says “thoughts and prayers” they are really admitting they do not know the difference or, if they do, they do not want to completely trust the outcome to God’s providence and are trying to cover all bases, thereby really covering none at all.