This is from an April 14, 2008 study journal entry.
An analogy while reading the Joseph Smith Manual (lesson 7).
Faith without works is like reading a cook book and expecting to be well fed afterwards. It is not the reading that fills you up and lets you taste of the succulent food. The food is the fruit of your labors of following the directions, cutting the vegetables, adding the ingredients, putting forth the effort, and patiently waiting the prescribed amount of time. With faith it is similar. It is fruitless and dead if
there is no action, no working towards the goal, no effort, time or patience given. One can not simply read and believe. One can not do one step and not the others.