The evil inclination of a person strengthens itself against a person every day and tries to kill him, and if not for Hashem helping him every person would be unable to challenge the evil inclination. One must precede any possible difficulty with a prayer, and ask for mercy from Hashem that He should save us from any iniquity and help us to perform good deeds.
However, prayer alone does not suffice, for even if a person prays all day to Hashem to save him from the evil inclination, and he himself will not strengthen himself against his evil inclination, this is a wasteful prayer, for Hashem created the evil inclination for the good and benefit of man, so that he can overcome his evil inclination and receive reward, and if not for the evil inclination, a person would be like the heavenly serving angels and he would not have reward or punishment, and he would have no need of the world to come. The entire world was only created for this purpose so that people may overcome their evil inclinations and receive the good reward from heaven, and prayer cannot help for this point.
This can be compared to a person who is locked up in a house and his hands are tied and he does not occupy himself with any work, and he prays all day to Hashem to send him blessings, where it is obvious that his prayers will have no effect, and Hashem will not perform a miracle to pour blessing for him through the windows of the heavens, as the verse says “So that Hashem will bless you with all the work of your hands that you do!”, and after he has occupied himself with his business he should pray for mercy so that his work should be blessed and then “The blessing of Hashem is what gives riches!”.
One may also add that when discussing livelihoods it is possible that a person has merits which will cause a miracle to be done for him and he will find a hidden treasure, or that he will receive blessings in his pocket and possessions, and there are people whose work is done for them while they sit idle, but when discussing the evil inclination, if a person will not personally take responsibility to fight against it he will not be able to be saved from it. A person must overcome his evil inclination and also beseech the Al-Mighty, but understand at the same time that Hashem will only help him, for everything is in the hands of heaven apart from the fear of heaven, but he who comes to purify himself will receive heavenly assistance.
