Seems to be a rather negative approach to this concept. It's always seemed to me to be an expression of resignation to a higher authority.
Trying to trace it's modern usage would be rather difficult, since it seems to be pretty common. The Bible itself (the Word of God?) might be the best source for the ultimate origins of it.
For I have heard the slander of many:
fear was on every side:
while they took counsel together against me,
they devised to take away my life.
But I trusted in thee, O LORD:
I said,
Thou art my God.
My times are in thy hand:
deliver me from the hand of mine enemies,
and from them that persecute me.
~ Psalm 31: 13-15
"I have labored to no purpose;
I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.
Yet
what is due me is in the LORD's hand,
and my reward is with my God."
~ Isaiah 49: 4
Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.
~ Martin Luther
