Here's a change in my approach to Bible study that really improved my results several years ago. Instead of just reading a passage of Scripture, I bombard it with questions. In fact, my approach to the Bible now has three steps: I ask the text questions, I look for the answers, and then I try to put the answers together into a meaningful whole.
This last step is critical. It's easy for a facts kind of guy like me to come up with all kinds of tiny details about a passage. But it's much harder for me to put all the data together into a meaningful synthesis. But I'm improving! So every time we come to the Bible, let's approach it in terms of both the details and the big picture.
I can hardly wait for my Bible study tomorrow morning!