Hi @cpeters and welcome to Community! I hope you enjoy your time here - this space is full on Brilliant and Sassy players
Now onto your question: you can play the game offline as well but if you can e.g. go to the internet on your device, you have internet connection. So if your game indeed is connected to internet and this issue persists, please try out these steps:
I have been requesting lives from my friends daily but it is only on rare occasions that I receive some. Maybe once a month. What is up with that? all the other games I send and receive lives.