Alma 60

Captain Moroni was frustrated with the lack of support he and his armies were receiving from the central government and wrote a letter to complain to the chief judge Pahoran. One message that Moroni repeats is the need for us to do all that we can for ourselves. Self-reliance is a virtue that we should cultivate. I have heard members say that they had been praying for something to happen, but I knew from our conversation that they had done nothing else themselves to make it happen. Without any effort on their part other than to ask, they seemed to hope for a miracle.

Moroni warns against that kind of lazy approach. We should pray as if all depended on the Lord and work as if all depended on us. It is the combination of faith and work that results in miracles.

11 Behold, could ye suppose that ye could sit upon your thrones, and because of the exceeding goodness of God ye could do nothing and he would deliver you? Behold, if ye have supposed this ye have supposed in vain.

21 Or do ye suppose that the Lord will still deliver us, while we sit upon our thrones and do not make use of the means which the Lord has provided for us?

In Moroni's words, we need to "begin to be up and doing."