The secret of failure is failure in the secret just as the secret of success is success in the secret. People fail in the public because they have failed in the secret. They succeed in the public because they have succeeded in the secret.
What happens to you in the secret – success or failure - determines what happens to you in the public. Your public life is the product of your private life. Your public life can never exceed your life in the secret. You cannot have an output in the public that is not the product of the input you have made in the secret.
For a while, one may disguise or pretend in the public to have a viable secret life. Time, however, has a way of testing and trying the authenticity of our lives. We will be proved and soon the whole world will know that we are fakes.
The secret is always the template for the public life. It’s the foundation on which the public life is built. To project a positive public image without a reliable private life is self counterfeiting. The ultra structure we have built on a weak foundation will soon cave in and collapse.

A Covetous Generation
We are in a generation where people see a successful man and they want to be like him in a single day. We “covet” the success of the successful but not their secret sacrifice. Indeed it is a covetous generation like that of Simon the sorcerer, who thought the gift and grace of God can be bought with money.
Nowadays, people run to the altar to drop an offering to tap or receive the anointing on the man of God. To such, we bring the rebuke of Peter to Simon, the sorcerer;
“To hell with your money! And you along with it. Why, that's unthinkable--trying to buy God's gift!  You'll never be part of what God is doing by striking bargains and offering bribes…” Acts 8:20-23 MSG.

No Shortcuts
There are no shortcuts to success – the secret is always the secret. Secret diligence, secret labours and hard work, secret study, secret sacrifices are the secrets of all forms of success. This is also the secret of those who fail in life; they have failed in the secret!
Jesus in Mathew 6:1-18 taught the people about giving of alms, prayers and fasting. Jesus made it clear that the secret of doing these things successfully is doing them in the secret. He placed emphasis on the principle and priority of the secret as the secret of success. In verses 4, 6 and 18 He summarized it like this: And your Father who sees in the secret Himself shall reward you openly.
Invariably, we can say that public reward is the product of a secret investment.

What Goes On In Your Secret?
The question then is, what is the heavenly Father seeing in your secret? If the Father should come to your secret today, what will He see? Will he see secret sin or secret sacrifice? Pornography or praying? Backbiting or Bible study? Don’t you ever forget that, either good or bad, your secret life will be rewarded openly by God. The challenge today is for us to take responsibility for what happens in our lives when no eye is watching.
We ought to start building a secret life that can command a good reward in the open. We can intercede secretly for souls. We can raise disciples secretly for the Lord. We can labour secretly and serve without the knowledge of anybody. We can give secretly to the work of God. And your Father who sees in the secret Himself shall reward you openly.

Characteristics of the Secret Life That Commands Open Rewards

• Consistency

You must be consistent in your secret commitment to a noble course if it will command an open reward. A once-in-a-while commitment will never catch God’s attention. It is the cumulative effect of your secret diligence that will attract the eye of God. In Acts 10, there is a story of a man who was consistent. He gave alms and prayed to God. The Bible says:
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with his entire house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. Acts 10:1-2 KJV
His alms was characterized by the adjective “much” and his prayers by “always”. These are indications of consistency. He was always giving and always praying. He gave and prayed until it became much.
It seems to me that there is a measure that our secret commitment must meet before it can command heaven’s attention. Our open reward comes when this measure is full. God responds by measuring it back to us in folds. Consistency is the key to meeting up to this measure. This is why the Scriptures admonished us not to“become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest” (Galatians 6:9GNB).
Cornelius did alms and prayed until he was called “a certain man”. His life became certain. He could not be confused with other men. He was distinguished by his giving and praying.
God’s demand on your own life may not necessarily be praying, giving or fasting but there is a particular demand, commitment or consecration that will command open reward in your own life. It could be secret study as a student that will guarantee open and striking success. It could be secret faithfulness and righteousness in your business dealings as a business man. You must be consistent in that secret commitment if your life will attract the attention of heaven and earth.

• Kept secret

Your secret investments must be kept secret if it will yield a public reward. It must be hidden from the eye and ear of men. A secret heard or seen of men is no longer a secret. Jesus said,
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father. Mathew 6:1 KJV
The tendency in every man is to showcase what is done in the secret especially when one is despised or overlooked. To do this however, is to uproot our seed before it germinates and grow up to bring forth fruits. Jesus said, such people already have their rewards. Only the secret that is secret indeed can command an open reward.
In the example of Cornelius, God said; Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
This indicates that Cornelius had kept his prayers and giving life from the eye and ear of men as much as possible. It was before God that he gave and prayed. He was careful to make sure that even when men saw him; it was not to get their attention but the attention of God.

You Have No Secret!
Don’t forget that “your Father sees in secret”. God is the God of the secret. He is a witness to the secret of all men; nothing can be hidden from His eyes. The Bible says;
Neither is there any creature that will not be made manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13 KJV
For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither is there anything hidden that shall not be known and come abroad. Luke 8:17; Mathew 10:26; Mark 4:22. KJV
Your secret is not a secret before the God of the secret. You cannot hide your secret from His eyes. You may close all the windows and doors but He is still with you. He never sleeps nor slumbers and so there is no free time for you. You cannot do anything without His knowledge. Nothing can be kept secret from God with whom you are dealing.
The king of Syria was troubled because his secrets were discovered by the king of Israel. He could not harm him because his war strategies were exposed. Out of indignation, he said to his servants, “Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?”
And one his servants said, none, my lord, o king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speaketh in thy bed chamber. 2 Kings 6:11-12. KJV
David slept with Beersheba and killed her husband secretly. He taught the whole show was over until God who sees in the secret showed up and sent Nathan to him. In 2 Samuel 12:12, God said;
For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. (KJV)
God was giving David an open reward for his secret misbehavior. You cannot hide it from God; you may hide it from men. One day, your secret life will bring you an open reward. He will reward your secret openly either good or bad. A day is coming “when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ…” (Romans 2:16 KJV)

Destroy The Shameful Secret!
God is seeing your secret laziness, secret compromise, secret lie, secret stealing, secret lust, fornication and masturbation, secret procrastination, secret infidelity, etc. If your secret is sinful, do not make it a secret any longer, expose it! Sin is strengthened by secrecy but it loses its power when it is exposed. A secret confessed is a secret destroyed.
Jesus can help you today if you will trust Him. If you continue to keep it secret, a day is coming when it will be exposed on the roof-tops. Destroy that secret sin today by confessing it and forsaking it.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13 KJV
Make a public show of that secret sin and its power will be destroyed. Why don’t you decide today to build a clean, strong, steady and stable secret life so that you can have a rewarding public life? Cut off from your secret all that is shameful and sinful! Jesus can help you.