Different approaches to studying the Bible

I know there are plenty of different methods to study the bible like the Swedish Method, or concept of S.O.A.P readings but what I'm interested in is literally approaches to studying the bible rather than the methods themselves.

When I study the word I come to it being intentional to get something of impact out of it. This might be an assurance of God's love, or an insight into how I can live life more effectively. Coming with an intention like this is good, but I've realised my intention manifests itself in such a way it may be causing me to miss things God wants to tell me. When I approach the Bible in this manner I read the bible expecting to find something and searching for it. And whenever we are searching for something, we at least have a rough idea of what we're looking for. The fact that we have even the tiniest preconceived idea of what we're looking for limits what we're going to see when we read the passage. It's like when your thinking of buying a new grey car. Suddenly you see all the grey cars people are driving around, standing out as if they're more prominent than red cars.

So what's another approach I can take to studying the bible? I think a good way is to first start with prayer, committing to God that you will remove any expectations you have, and that you want to give up your current understanding of what you're reading. Ask God that you will see what he wants you to see, and not what you already know. Going into the word having given up your preconceived ideas about the passage will give you the opportunity to read the passage in it's rawest form.

This may be a difficult thing for you to do. Many of our preconceived ideas are concreted into our subconscious, created when we were kids. But if we're going to read the word for what it is, we have to be willing to give up our own need to be right about our current beliefs and knowledge. We have to be willing to read the word, and acknowledge an understanding we have could be wrong.

I recognise this isn't the only way of approaching study, and I'm in no way suggesting you drop your current approach to study. I still think the first approach is a very powerful way of approaching the Bible, but I've come to realise that it was limiting my study, and so I'm giving this a go.

Please, if you have another approach to studying the bible, please post them as comments to this post. I am eager to see what other people think of this matter.