Wait until you use all your lives before reloading game to access messages then you can accept the lives gifted from friends.

I have the same problem, my friends have sent me lives but as I had my full 5 I did not accept them, but when I run out I do not where or how to access my messages

You should not accept the gift of a life if you already have 5. Only accept the gift if you have less than 5 lives.

You can pay to up your max lives to 8. I have also discovered that u can store the unused ones if u keep your list on your phone. I dont know about droid phones though. I have full lives and a current surplus of 11 gift lives that i just have to ok to use. Unfortunately I cannot do this on the computer

I'm in the same boat ... I run out of lives ... but I know that some peeps have gifted me not only free lives but also 3-moves and i can't find them!

Even when I am not at 5 lives ( full) it still does not add them.....

It is because you max out at 5 lives. whether your friends give you some or not, once you are at 5, you cannot get any higher.