What does "it's in God's hands" mean?

“it” being the situation. God’s hands being opposed to man’s hands—God who is almighty, all capable, is the only one who has control over the situation.
How does it help? Morale I guess.
It’s not a phrase I normally say, but it’s not one I’m opposed to saying, as an atheist.

I guess it just means, what will be will be. Something we have no control over. Like feelings or reactions. How someone will react could maybe said as it’s in gods hands. I am not religious whatsoever, just trying to answer your question.

“It” would be the outcome of a course of events. The implication is simply that it will all work out for the best because a benevolent force is in charge. It’s a surrender to the direction of a more powerful being possessing a broader perspective. The comfort comes from the conviction that this benevolent force has the best interests of the faithful at heart.

I think that a lot of times it means that people think there’s nothing more they can do. There are situations where this is true, like when someone is in a coma and its unknown if they’ll wake up, but my beef with this expression is when people give up when there is something they can do. Finding a job, for example, shouldn’t be in God’s hands, you have to pick up the want ads and do your part. But in general, its trusting that things will turn out right because God will have a hand in the way things happen.

I prefer the saying “God helps those who help themselves,” myself.

It’s like when an EMT can do nothing more for a patient and must turn him over to a full time doctor.

it’s in god’s hands = it’s out of ours; IOW it’s out of your control

Passing the buck would me my interpretation.

Basically it means that everyone involved has done everything that they could proactively do to influence/rectify a problem or situation, and the waiting game begins for the outcome to happen.

It’s what’s said when overly religious people have no more excuses for why their God is doing what he/she is doing, and can’t use a bible verse to get out of it. Sorry, but organized religion has been a sore spot for me for quite some time. To each their own, and if religion makes you feel better about life, good for you – I’m not knocking anyone personally, so retaliation on here is pointless – because I don’t “argue on the internet”. Google that and you’ll see why.

I can be an expression of fatalism or, like Inshallah, an automatic expression of religious faith. From a secular standpoint it can mean “I’ve done my best, it’s out of my hands now”. I’ve noticed some people using it as an excuse for not giving a thing their best effort.

You say, ”...there’s a lot of stuff I don’t understand about various religious traditions”, but asking the collective’s interpretation of someone else’s figure of speech does little to help you understand religion.

Just because someone utters the word God does not mean their speech has any religious or spiritual relevance.

For all we know, the maintenance man could be just parroting something he heard someone else say. And, people do demonstrate an annoying habit of saying things just to hear themselves speak.

It means… nothing. Or it means that the person has given up and doesn’t want to think (or talk) about it any more.

@CyanoticWasp That’s about as good an answer as any. Short, sweet and to the point.

I knew there was a reason I liked you…

@SABOTEUR, is that you writing those nice notes to me at the top right hand corner of my fluther screen? Thanks.

Ok, you two, get a room. :P

@CyanoticWasp I’ll never tell…you’re welcome!

If something or someone is beyond help or fixing. It’s usually sarcastic, but if some religious person says it, its just them being religious, so disregard it.

It means “well, we’re fucked.” Being in God’s hands is not a good thing; He’s almost certain to commit “an act of God.”

One thing my mother always taught me is that, no matter what the situation was, “it will work out”, or “we’re going to be okay”. It has helped my outlook throughout my life and for that reason her headstone now reads…“All Is In God’s Hands”, because I believe it is.

@Corina778 Well said!

(Welcome to Fluther)

LOL @ratboy… that’s what we get when God’s mom tells him to “Act your age!” A being who’s 12 billion years old (give or take) is going to be cranky more often than not, I guess.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

To me something being in God’s hands has a symbolic meaning: the fundamental laws of the cosmos will determine the outcome. This even includes the uncertainty principle. So we have no way of predicting the future with 100% accuracy. In this respect the future “is in God’s hands”. But this also means we should have the courage to change the things we can. Like finding better treatments for depression or finding a cure for cancer or making sure climate change doesn’t ruin all our ecosystems and food chains.