All Things for Good

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’ (Daniel 4:35)

Question 8: How does God execute his decrees?
Answer: God executes his decrees in the works of creation, and
providence.[i]
 
What the answer to question 8 is telling us is that God executes his decrees, he causes that which he wills to come to be, both by bringing creation into existence and by moving, governing, orchestrating creation.  For instance, Revelation 4:11 says, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created,” and Hebrews 1:3 tells us that God “upholds the universe by the word of his power.”  Thus, God executes his decrees by simply willing into existence all that is and by sustaining it.  But he not only wills into existence all that is and then upholds it, for we read in Daniel 4:35, regarding God scripture says, “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’”  God “does according to his will” in heaven and on earth.  Passages like these communicate that God is absolutely sovereign over all things.  And when we talk about the sovereignty of God, we mean that God does what he wills when he wills to whom he wills and answers to no one.  The decrees of God are limited or bound by nothing.  The comfort in understanding this is that we serve a very big God.  And when we look out at the world around us, though it may seem as though everything is out of control, the reality is that all things are moving just as God has ordained it.  And because we know God is good and holy and righteous, then we know that everything God does in this world is for a good and holy and righteous reason.  We simply must trust God. 

[i] “A Catechism with Proofs” by Charles Haddon Spurgeon