Do "our thoughts and prayers" mean anything anymore?

Vox media asked faith leaders whether or not our repeated invocation of “thoughts and prayers” in the face of tragedy has meaning anymore -- here are the diverse edited responses to their question for reflection:
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Pastor Kelly France, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Minneapolis: Prayer can be a powerful grounding force. Prayer isn’t just a matter of wishing that things would have turned out differently, although that is part of it. When people pray, we assume a posture of listening.
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Prayer opens us to hear what God is calling us to do in a situation; it is a way to find clarity in the chaos around us by turning to God, who is greater than our pain and anxiety.
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Prayer grounds us in God’s mission and reminds us that God is active in the world ... Prayer helps us to remember God’s will for creation. Prayer moves us beyond ourselves toward God’s promise.
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Rabbi Jill Jacobs, T’ruah The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, New York: Prayer reminds us to reflect on others. Prayer frees us from our intellectualizing and rationalizing, breaks down the protective barrier around our hearts, and allows us to voice our pain and anguish. "Every night, I drench my bed; I melt my couch in tears" (Psalms 6:7). And prayer enables us to seek strength from a connection both to the divine (however we conceive of divinity) and to the community praying with us.
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Ultimately, prayer also forces us back into the world. We cannot praise God for divine acts of justice and mercy without hearing the call to imitate God through our own actions. As the prophet Isaiah warns, "Though you pray at length, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood" (Isaiah 1:15). Prayer is necessary but never sufficient.
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Pastor Jim Kast-Keat, Riverside Church, New York: I often think the "thoughts and prayers" trope, especially in the immediate wake of a tragedy like this one, is utterly useless and only serves to alleviate the guilt that the "thinker" or "prayer" has for not being able to (or being willing to) do anything more ...
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As cheesy as it might sound, I want people to stop going to church and I want them to start being the church. I want them to stop praying with their thoughts and starting praying with their bodies...
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg: God doesn’t want your thoughts and prayers. God wants you to know that you are responsible to care for and protect other people. And to take action to do so.
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Patrick Hill, counselor at Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado: Not only do our prayers move God's heart, but the direct communication with God strengthens our faith and provides comfort and peace — for the person praying and for those being prayed for. God’s desire for this world is peace. When we cry out to God, God pours out God's perfect peace.
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Pastor Dave Gass, Grace Family Fellowship, Pleasant Hill, Missouri:
“Thoughts and prayers” often get put together, when in actuality they are two very contra-distinct terms. Prayer is the idea of seeking help from outside of ourselves, while thoughts are internalized processing mechanisms ...
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We like to think of prayer as a way to get God to do what we want, but God is not a cosmic vending machine. We do not use prayer as a form of celestial manipulation. Instead, prayer is a means through which we communicate our hearts to God, and we surrender to God's perfect will. In other words, prayer is a means through which we remind ourselves ... that God is God and we are not.
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... I confess on behalf of many (perhaps most) Christians that prayer is often an excuse for inaction ...
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Prayer allows us to communicate our thoughts and feelings to God, knowing that God cares for us and is involved in our daily lives.
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... Prayer gives us space to grieve, to process, and to move toward actions of healing and growth from the pain we are experiencing both within ourselves and in the lives of others.
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In prayer we know that God is real, God is good, God is working, and God is calling us forward. Far from being inaction, prayer is a call to action.
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Rev. Elizabeth Rawlings, Lutheran Campus Ministry at University of Washington, Seattle: Prayer for my community and myself is time to be in relationship with God in an intimate, focused way.
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Through prayer, we are rooted in God. Sometimes we end up reflecting on hard truths about ourselves or the world; sometimes we are filled with love, strength, and grace. Sometimes we go to prayer to let out all of the pain and give it to God.
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Prayer for others allows us to focus on the needs of others and their suffering (or joy) and petition God for God's presence to be known in their lives.
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Prayer is being in relationship and communication with God. It breaks open our heart to the world and calls us to action.
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Simply stating that your thoughts and prayers are with someone is meaningless unless you are actively engaging in and with the pain and suffering in the world — and doing something about it.
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Father A.K.M. Adam, University of Oxford, Oxford, England: ... At this minute, in the face of such catastrophic evil, I can take an action that binds me closer in solidarity with many others around the globe, and that (in the faith by which I live) responds positively to a divine command and orients me toward a radically more benign state of affairs. So I pray.
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... prayer and activism are not zero-sum alternatives...
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Is tweeting, “Don't pray,” an improvement over tweeting, “I'm praying”?
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Imam Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Detroit: Acknowledging the suffering of others is important, even if the phrasing is trite. As there are those who may use the phrase “our thoughts and prayers are with victims and their families” as a cliché during tragic times, saying such is important nonetheless. Such statements reflect, at least in certain occasions, that there has been negative impact on fellow humans.
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The lack of acknowledging others’ suffering outside of one’s self or family is a sign of spiritual death. Spiritually dead people cannot bring healing and growth in any society.
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Father James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage, New York: Prayer is communication with God. So how can one not cry out to God when one is in need? It's part of an open and honest communication, as in any relationship.
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But how God responds is up to God. God may respond, for instance, by encouraging you to reach out or help someone who is suffering. That is, God may move your heart to help the victims of a tragedy in some way.
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What God does is up to God. All I know is that I frequently ask God for help, and I'm grateful when people pray for me.