Matthew 6:5
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward."
The Christian life is truly not what you do in public, but what you do in private.
The greatness of a Christian is not determined by what they do on the stage, but what they do in practice. Sadly, many Christians perform to be seen of man, but God wants the Christian to serve Him in public and in private.
In Matthew 6, God deals with three areas of the Christians life that should have no public life. I know this sounds strange as much of what we do as Christians is in the public, but these three areas will only be rewarded by how private you are with them.
The first area is in your giving. Matthew 6:3-4 says, "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly." The Pharisees were known for letting everyone know how much they gave. They wanted man to recognize them. In fact, God said that if you give to be recognized by man, then your reward is man's recognition. In other words, you can choose to be rewarded by man's recognition, or you can choose to let God reward you in an open fashion. Giving should never be done for man's recognition. There are many people who brag about how much they gave, and that will be their reward. They will be highly disappointed when they get to Heaven because they gave up their rewards when they chose to tell everyone how much they gave.
The second area where we should be private is in our prayer life. God says in verse 6, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Notice, your prayers should be private. You should not let everyone know for what you are praying. Let God reveal your prayer life by answering your prayers.
The third area in which we should be private is in fasting. Verses 17-18 say, "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast,..." Fasting is a private thing. You should not broadcast that you are fasting. If a church chooses to fast, then the church needs to keep it in-house if they expect God to reward their fast. Your purpose of fasting is not to show others how spiritual you are, but it is to show God that you need Him to answer your prayer.
God said in these three areas the Pharisees "have their reward" because they did them to be seen of men. Christian, don't let your reward in these areas be lost because you do them to be seen of man. Keep these three areas of your Christian life private. Let God be the One Who openly rewards you. Always remember that you forfeit your rewards when you let others know what you are doing in these areas. Your choice is to be recognized by man, or to receive your rewards from God. It's truly a simple choice; God's rewards are much better than man's recognition.