The collect for the second Sunday in Advent will help us to understand this question.  It prays:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

There are a number of important ideas for us to keep in mind as we approach the Bible.  Let me take them one by one:

Hear them-  The Scriptures were not originally written down.  They began as stories told about how God has interacted with mankind.  So, the word of God is intended first to be heard, and only later was it written that we might preserve those stories and thereby learn about God.  To hear the word of God spoken is vitally important to our understanding of it.  That is one of the reasons that Church attendance is so very important.

Read-  Now that we have the clear record of scripture, and are able to do so, we should each individually read the Bible for ourselves.  We often fail to see what a treasure this is.  For the vast majority of human history very few people were able to read.  Also, the scriptures were only available in a very few languages such as Hebrew, Greek, and later, Latin.  Even fewer people knew how to read these languages.

Mark-  To mark is not necessarily writing down notes in your bible, but many people do just that.  The kind of “mark” that is meant in the prayer is to take something seriously.  So we are to read the scriptures and take them seriously, noting the meaning behind the words.  We don’t read just to read, but rather to discern the deeper meaning.

Learn-  Many people read as a form of distraction or amusement.  The scriptures have a lot of entertainment and especially humor in them, but they were written for our learning, not for our amusement.

Inwardly digest-  It is possible to read, mark, and learn a lot from the bible, but unless we give the scriptures time to grow and develop within us we will not get the full benefit of all that the Bible offers us.  Simply reading the bible won’t do it.  Nor will memorizing it yield the full fruit.  Both of those things are very helpful to the our full understanding of God’s Word, but they fall short of the benefits that come from meditating on and thinking carefully about what the Word of God is telling us.

Patience-  True wisdom does not come quickly or easily.  And neither does a full appreciation of scripture until it has steeped into your bones over long years.  It is easy for a new Christian to become arrogant having spent a year or two studying the Bible, but true wisdom doesn’t come that quickly.  We must learn humility and patience so that God can bring us to a place of mature understanding.

Comfort-  Upon first glance there are many things written in the Bible that can be unsettling or even disturbing, but they only seem so because we do not understand them as God would have us do.  Our comfort does not lie in understanding the Bible, but rather it comes from knowing, loving and serving the God that the Bible strives to teach us about.

There are many different systems established as ways to read the bible in an orderly way.  I caution against the ones that promise quick results or specious goals such as finishing the task in a relatively short period of time.  The church contemplates that the bible be read through completely over the course of three years with certain parts being repeated more than once.  That seems wise to me as not every part is of equal importance or usefulness.  Please see me if you would like help in laying out a plan for purposeful reading.