No matter what happened, the American colonists were going to need a lot of help. They couldn’t change the policies of the British government, though they did try. They couldn’t stop the shiploads of redcoats who were landing in Boston to enforce the “Intolerable Acts.” They did what they could to help the people of Boston and to stand firmly for their rights, but there was only so much they could do. And so, almost a year before the war began, the Virginia House of Burgesses decided to ask for divine help:
This House, being deeply impressed with Apprehension of the great Dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile Invasion of the City of Boston, … whose Commerce and Harbour are on the 1st Day of June next to be stopped by an armed Force, deem it highly necessary that the said first Day of June be set apart by the Members of this House as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, devoutly to implore the divine Interposition for averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights, and that the Minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with Wisdom, Moderation, and Justice, to remove from the loyal People of America all Cause of Danger from a continued Pursuit of Measures pregnant with their Ruin.
They knew the saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” and they weren’t going to sit around and do nothing. But they knew they would need all the help they could get.
Source
The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six, ed. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, 22.